Women`s Entrepreneurship in Poland

2011
Przedsiębiorczość
kobiet
Women
Entrepreneurship
w Polsce
in
Poland
UNIA EUROPEJSKA
EUROPEJSKI
FUNDUSZ SPOŁECZNY
WOMEN ENTREPRENEURSHIP
IN POLAND
Research Report
Polish Agency for Enterprise Development
Warsaw, 2011
This publication has been prepared as a part of a systemic project : Women entrepreneurship, carried out under Human Capital Operational Program, Activity 2.1 Human resources
development of modern economy, Sub-activity 2.1.3. System support to increase adaptive
skills of employees and enterprises.
Report authors:
prof. Bożenna Balcerzak-Paradowska (Project manager)
prof. Marek Bednarski
dr Dorota Głogosz
dr Przemysław Kusztelak
dr Anna Ruzik-Sierdzińska
Joanna Mirosław
Attachment 1 author- Report on experimental research:
dr Przemysław Kusztelak
dr Michał Krawczyk
Coordination and substantive collaboration (PARP):
Anna Tarnawa
Dorota Węcławska
Review:
dr Ewa Lisowska
Opinions and views expressed by the authors of the publication do not necessarily reflect
the position of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development.
Publisher:
Polish Agency for Enterprise Development
81/83 Pańska Street
00-834 Warsaw
www.parp.gov.pl
© Copyright by Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, Warsaw 2011
Free publication
The publication is also available in an electronic version on www.parp.gov.pl
ISBN 978-83-7633-185-0
Edition I
Circulation of 1000 copies, ecological paper
Printing preparation, printing and binding: Drukarnia UPI Sp. z o. o., www.upi.pl
UNIA EUROPEJSKA
EUROPEJSKI
FUNDUSZ SPOŁECZNY
The project is partly funded by The European Union with the resources of European Social
Fund as part of Human Capital Operational Program
CONTENTS
Summary
Chapter I.Female entrepreneurship in the light of current studies
1. The influence of entrepreneurship on economy
2. The characteristics of female entrepreneurship in the statistics
3. Motivations of starting a business activity – from the female point of view
4. Entrepreneurship determinants
5. Barriers in entrepreneurship development
6. The level of knowledge on starting and running business activity
Chapter II.Objectives, hypotheses and verification
1. Research objectives and hypotheses
2. Methodology of research
Chapter III.Barriers and female entrepreneurship determinants in Poland.
1. The motivation of undertaking business activity
2. Conditions and barriers of female entrepreneurship development
Chapter IV. Running business activity vs family life
1. The hierarchy of life values vs attitudes towards the entrepreneurship among
men and women running their own companies.
2. The most crucial advantages and disadvantages of a professional career
3. Running a company vs matrimonial and procreational plans of female
entrepreneurs
4. The preferable and realised family model by female entrepreneurs
5. The forms of care over small children and other dependable persons
6. The postulates in terms of solutions enabling female entrepreneurs
to combine professional and family duties.
RECOMMENDATIONS
BIBLIOGRAPHY
ATTACHMENT 1 Report on the economic experiment
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Ladies and Gentlemen,
Polish women are one of the most entrepreneurial women in the European Union (the
rate is about 35%). Yet, there are still noticeable disproportions regarding women and men
entrepreneurship – in terms of the given percentage rate of women and men running business activity as well as the experience and scale of their companies. The research show that
while men who do not run a one-man business activity employ approximately 9 people,
in case of women - the rate is 5 employees. Women are also very rarely the owners of big
companies, ie. employing at least 250 persons. Less than one out of four female owners
employs workers - the remaining part is self-employed entrepreneurs, often constituting
so-called ostensible self-employment. Women study more often than men and at the same
time are better-educated, which proves they have a great potential for personal development as well.
Therefore, there must be other reasons why both men and women decide to start and run
business activity. Broadening the knowledge about female entrepreneurship in Poland and
the aforementioned conditions of its development was the aim of the PARP research project, the result of which is the following report „Women entrepreneurship in Poland”.
The research findings and suggested recommendations will form the basis for creating tools
to support women entrepreneurs and respond to their real needs. I strongly believe that
these activities will enable all entrepreneurial people to be provided with an opportunity to
use their potential, which will benefit the whole society and economy. I do also hope that
as a result, we will permanently part with certain stereotypes regarding oldfashioned cultural norms, among others: women’s risk-aversion, their too great focus on soft skills as well as
various motivations for starting business activity or their approach to running business.
Bożena Lublińska-Kasprzak
The President of
the Polish Agency for Entrepreneurship
Development
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Summary
Women entrepreneurship is an important challenge in modern societies, and at the same
time it’s a complex phenomenon. On the one hand, a distinctive economic context is noticeable as far as women entrepreneurship is concerned; on the other hand, starting own business activity by women and becoming owners of their companies is strongly determined by
culture. The countries which enable all entrepreneurial citizens to show their potential, experience rapid economic growth. Thus, using the entrepreneurial potential, which is deeply
rooted in women, constitutes a source of prosperity and growth for many societies.
Research objectives
The main objective of the project was to broaden the knowledge on women entrepreneurship in Poland and prepare recommendations regarding ways of support and limiting the
barriers disallowing them to increase their business activity. The detailed aims were as following:
‚‚ identifying current conditions of shaping and developing attitudes towards female
entrepreneurship in Poland;
‚‚ evaluating the functioning of businesswomen in Polish social-economic reality;
‚‚ identifying barriers and stimuli of undertaking business activities by women, affecting
the development of their companies, and recognising the situation regarding the possibility of combining their own career with family responsibilities.
In order to achieve these objectives five research hypotheses were verified by means
of empirical study:
1. Women undertaking their own business activity are motivated by various factors: for
some of them it is a chance to develop professionally, for others - the only way to earn
a living.
2. Actions taken to increase women’s motivations to establish their own companies can
vitally contribute to the professional activation of women who are inactive on the
labour market, for example those taking care of young children.
3. There are conditions and institutional barriers which affect the level of entrepreneurship among women rather than men (among others, determined technical infrastructure, education, being courageous, tax system, access to institutional care for young
children, professional career of other family members).
4. There are conditions and social-cultural barriers in terms of starting and runnung business activity, which women experience in particular, including psychological factors
that are a common reason to establish a company by men rather than by women.
5. Running your own business activity influences combining family responsibillities with
making a career.
Methodology
In the course of the project there was an analysis made of secondary data (desk research)
as well as five empirical studies: two quantitative surveys (PAPI I i PAPI II), two qualitative surveys (IDI i FGI) and an economic experiment (EE)1.
1
Quantitative surveys qualitative surveys were conducted by IBC Group company, and the economic experiment
by LABSEE Robert Borowski.
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First quantitative survey (PAPI I) addressed women of different labour market status (141
women-entrepreneurs, 868 women employees, 347 unemployed and inactive in the labour
market women. All respondents were aged 25-44, that is at the age of the greatest professional activity. At the same time this is the age of a great number of responsibilities with
bringing up children. The aim of the study was to seek women’s opinions on the conditions
of starting and running a business activity, including their opinion on expected difficulties
and necessary solutions supporting entrepreneurship. At the same time the survey was
to gather information about the connection between the family life (especially protective
responsibilities) and the factors determining the decision to start and run own company by
women. The respondents were chosen from all-Poland household base prepared by GUS
(Central Statistical Office).
Second qualitative survey (PAPI II) addressed entrepreneurs: 806 women and 996 men,
at the age of professional activity. The aim of the study was to identify the determinants
and barriers regarding running a business activity, such as psychological, demographical,
social-cultural and institutional aspects. It was also to indicate the conditions equally affecting men and women and those uniqually influencing women. The respondents were chosen from ENIRO database ( REGON updated database).
As for individual interviews (IDI), 20 women entrepreneurs were interviewed. The purpose
of those was to gather knowledge about the history of starting and running the company,
taking into account the motives, stimuli, and then barriers and difficulties with evaluating
the conditions of functioning and the needs for development. The respondents were chosen at random. They were women of great entrepreneurial potential (successfully running
their business activity for at least 2 years) and fulfilling one of the following conditions:
investing in their employees’ qualifications; cooperating with research and development
units; being members of branch societies/associations; having plans to invest and develop
their companies.
The criteria taken into consideration were the size of the company, its headquarters – region
(NTS1) and the field of activity.
The aim of focused group interviews (FGI) was to contrast opinions of different persons
on determinants, barriers and motivations of starting and running a company. In four FGIs
opinions were collected from potential entrepreneurs who had already made an effort
to establish a business activity, entrepreneurs running a company for less than 2 years,
experienced entrepreneurs (running the present company for at least 2 years) as well as
persons who had resigned from running a business activity. The factor differentiating the
respondents within the group was the gender.
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An innovative solution in terms of using research techniques was an application of an economic experiment. The aim of that was to study the existence of differences in attitude
towards entrepreneurship among men and women, and to indicate the causes for the
existing discrepancies (or lack of them). The experiment enabled to compare the pledged
decisions and the actual decisions made by the participants. Thus, the results are more
reliable than the results of direct methods, and the analysis made on the grounds of the
experiment renders the actual people’s behaviour in a better way. The participants were
persons aged 20-30 , that is at the age when first decisions about the profile of one’s work
are made (160 persons).
Research conclusions
I. Desk-research conclusions
The analysis of the subject literature and statistical resources indicates that women entrepreneurship contributes to the economic development through creating new products
and employment. The increasing number of women who run their own companies proves
that women demonstrate entrepreneurial qualities, which enable them to overcome social
barriers successfully and to actively participate in economic processes.
The greatest increase in number of companies established by women was observed during the first years of transformation in Poland, when feminised factories were closed down
and women lost their jobs on a large scale. During the whole period of transformation the
number of self-employed women was relatively bigger than that of men. The OECD data
indicating the percentage participation of women working on their own among all the
employed, show that for many years Poland has been one of the leaders in this category.
Moreover, in the whole of Europe the rate of women entrepreneurship in Poland (including
the rate of the self-employed) has been one of the highest for years.
In the light of the subject literature, the high level of active enterprises among Polish women
is greatly influenced by both the „pushing-out” factor (the sense of co-responsibility for
financial situation of the family) and the „pushing-in”, referring particularly to young, welleducated women, connected with seeking high income and self-development in business.
At the same time, women more often than men start a business activity due to lack of other
reasonable alternative, and not because of the need to take advantage of the opportunity.
What is important for them are the following reasons for establishing their own company:
aspiration for independence to make decisions about their own fate; aspiration for gaining
higher income and being financially independent; the possibility of self-development; negative experiences when being employed and favourable conditions on the labour market.
A significant importance attached to starting and developing a business activity is manifested by framework conditions of entrepreneurship, among which the main ones are: capital
availability, public policies (taxes, legal regulations) and support instruments for entrepreneurship development, education and training, labour market openness, access to technical infrastructure as well as cultural and social norms. The determinants that are defined
in such a way refer both to men and women. However, the specific condition of women
entrepreneurship is the technological development, contributing to the fact that women
less often than men run a business activity in the fields of advanced technology. The other
determinants, particularly affecting establishing a business activity by women, are influenced by: economic factors connected with the increase in level of welfare in the society,
contributing to the development of services which are the scope for women entrepreneurship; economic crises and unemployment, limiting the range of mainly female contracted
employment; cultural factors, connected with women being perceived as entrepreneurs,
and institutional and demo-graphical factors regarding children .
As far as barriers to women entrepreneurship development are concerned, the available
research and analyses indicate tax barriers, too high out-of-salary labour costs, employment barriers connected with inflexible labour law, administrative barriers, the side effects
of shadow economy, competition on the part of privileged businesses, underdeveloped
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technical infrastructure, insufficient protection of intellectual property rights, systems
of values and social norms (including attitudes towards entreprenuers), educational barriers and traditional socialisation, strengthening the traditional division of social roles according to gender.
Many documents, both the EU ones (eg. the strategic document Europe 2020) and the
national plans to support employment, in which the need to increase female professional activity is expressed, including their own business activity, underline the fact that the
basic limitation of female existence on the labour market is lack of possibility to combine
career responsibilities with family ones, in particular with care-taking of children. At the
same time, their own business activity and more often self-employment, proves to be family-friendly. Such an evaluation was mainly influenced by a great scope for independence
to create rules of self-employment and the possibility of flexible working hours. These features of being self-employed are not reflected in statistics, though, e. g. the working hours
of employers and the self-employed in Poland are longer than the contract employees and,
what’s more, are non-standard irregular hours.
A crucial determinant of self-employment is, according to the subject literature, the limited
scope for parental rights of the self-employed (lack of rights to benefits included in the
labour law which the contract employees are entitled to, eg. maternity/post-maternity
leave). The annual leave is also used in a different way: without the right to remuneration for
the leave for women entrepreneurs. Lack of places in institutions of care, however, means
that there is not enough support for fulfiling caretaking roles in the families of female entrepreneurs.
II. Conducted research conclusions
1. Motivation
The results of empirical studies as part of the project indicate lack of crucial discrepancies among men and women.in motivations, positive and negative, to establish own
business activity. Most often – in both groups – the following were pointed out: the
need to take advantage of favourable circumstances (22% of women and men as well), lack
of alternative in employment (18% of women and 20% of men) and aspiration for independence (16% of women and 14% of men). Lack of work is favourable for selfemployment.
Moreover, there seemed to be similar paths of flow of men and women into their
own business: over 2/3 of both were contracted employees before starting their own
companies, 6% (men and women) had owned a company previously, and 8% of women
and 9% of men participating in the entrepreneurs research started their onw company
while studying.
However, financial aspects encourage starting own business activity, particularly the willingness to improve financial situation of the family: this factor was chosen by more male entrepreneurs (11%) than women running their own business activity (8%). At the same time
45% of female entrepreneurs participating in the research into different status of women
in the labour market chose this factor. What makes the female and male motivations different, though, is the willingness to support their partner’s activity and the need for flexibility
in taking care of children, being crucial mainly for women.
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In conclusion, the motivations of women starting their business activity are mainly – but not
solely – of out-of-family’ character, ie. not directly connected with individual family siuation,
paticularly with the scope of caretaking responsibilities. The motivations are the following:
the urge to achieve independence, the willingness to use their skills and qualifications, the
opportunity for higher income and perceiving such a career as achieving life success.
2. Social-cultural conditions of female entrepreneurship
The cultural norms according to which being a female entrepreneur is a rare and uncommon phenomenon are going for good. The system of values, their pledged hierarchy,
have no significant connection with either the status on the labour market, thus
with running your own company, or the gender of the entrepreneur. The most crucial
of these values, both for women and men, are honesty, career satisfaction and good health,
ie. the values widely accepted in Polish society.
The representatives of both genders agree on the most important characteristics of an
entrepreneur: industriousness, patience, creativity, innovativeness and courage. Women,
only slightly more often, point at soft skills (easiness in making contacts or having a wide
range of contacts in their environment). Men slighly more often think that entrepreneurs
should like taking risks. Women, however, did not show greater risk-aversion than men, they
even – as the conducted experiment proved – appeared to be more willing to do it. What
makes the respondents different in this matter is the professional status: female entrepreneurs have a smaller risk-aversion than contracted female employees.
In the light of the demographical-social and psychological-cultural features analysed
in the research (age, seniority at work, place of residence, student status, martial status,
level and type of education, having children under 7) there was only one factor typical
for women: motherhood.
3. Barriers in development of female entrepreneurship
There is no differentiation in the attitude towards doing business among men
and women. Both for men and women, the most common barriers in the company’s
development were: too high out-of-salary labour costs, difficulties with obtaining new clients, complex financial formalities, too complex procedures, time-consuming formalities
referring to issueing permits or licences and changeability in the labour law.
In the case of hindered access to capital (according to 12% of both male and female entrepreneurs), it was often pointed to the condition of high securities required by banks, which
is difficult – especially for a small company – to fulfil. The noticeable difference of barriers
in running a business activity, indicated by men and women, refers to the conditioning
of family life and caretaking responsibilities for young children, observed in qualitative survey. Women more often than men point to limited access to institutional care
of children.
4. Strategies of actions and career plans
Questions about having a strategy of actions and detailed company development plans
among entrepreneurs of both genders resulted in surprisingly similar findings. A little
more than half of the female businesses (54%) and the same number of male ones
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have the strategy for their actions. The percentage of active entrepreneurs focused
on development and rather inclined to remain the current position on the marker and the
level of development, regarding the company as a stable source of income, appeared to be
the same among men and women. Significant differences in development plans
of companies run by men and women were not indicated.
Potentially, female entrepreneurs are present among those of inactive in business;
over half of the respondents who are unemployed and inactive, or contract employees,
would be willing to start their own company if they could not find contract work. They indicated factors encouraging this decision such as having an idea for the activity, the possibility of using reliable ideas of other persons and using already existing supporting solutions
(eg. the system of goods sales and services by means of franchising). An important factor
in making the decision was also the subsidy stimulus.
5. Running business activity vs family life
The best time to start one’s own business is when being at the age of entering the labour
market and making career decisions – at the same time the age of greatest inclination
to take risk – which is favourable when making decisions about starting a business activity. However, it is also the time of developing matrimonial and procreational plans. Enterpreneurs suggested that it is better to make the decision about starting a business
activity when there are not so many family responsibilities, as at a certain stage of life
(motherhood) there are difficulties with simultaneous engagement in both spheres – family and work.
Half of the female entrepreneurs participating in quantitative survey have no children. In survey on women of a different status on the labour market the rate was significantly lower. Moreover, the surveyed women – regardless of the labour market status –
claimed that they should devote as much time as possible to their child in the first months.
The studies showed, though, that family and responsibilities with children can be
a stimulus to starting your own business, as running it is associated with better
income. It also gives an opportunity for better financial situation of the family and the
possibility to organise your own working hours as well as to be flexible in the choice
of work branch, which are the circumstances enabling to combine making a career with
family life. Life , however, verified these choices, eg. two out of every three surveyed
entrepreneurs – both men and women – agree that running your own business
leads to limiting the time devoted to household responsibilities and taking care
of children.
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Combining career with family life by female entrepreneurs depends on many factors: age
of children, forms of care, family model or women abilities to organise professional and family life. The character of a business activity determines the possibilities to balance
the duties of these two spheres of life; the possibility of working at home, which makes
it easier to organise your time, is of significant importance as well. The prevailing fields
of activity are those outside the place of residence, requring presence at certain time, contacts with clients, time discipline on a daily basis or business trips. The choice of the fields
of activity in accordance with private life is rather uncommon. Moreover, women running a business activity, forced to combine professional and family duties, felt strongly
the lack of institutional care over children. The solutions that would help in this matter are the following: the development of institutional forms of care over the youngest
children, such as nurseries, ensuring easier access to them, and the increase in availability
of care in kindergartens. Of less interest were the suggestions to extend some of the rights
of employees into entrepreneurs, to extend maternity leave or introduce post-maternity
leave. It results from the specific status of these women, who – as they claim – will not
be replaced in the company at the time. Lack of possibilities to use parental entitlements,
which contract female employees have the right to, may be one of the barriers to start your
own business activity.
6. Advantages and disadvantages of self-employment
Advantages and disadvantages of self-employment indicated by men and women differ
in a slight way. They mainly pointed to stress-free work, high income, the possibility of selfdevelopment and the stability of employment. Respect and prestige was more appreciated by men (94%) than women (86%). The factors which can significantly affect
combining professional and family duties (convenient working hours and the possibility
to work at home) were taken into account less often, regardless of the respondents’ gender,
though. Being on one’s own was perceived as a solution enabling women to combine family roles with professional ones who work as contract employees, are unemployed and inactive on the labour market. This advantage of running your own company was not appreciated by any of the female entrepreneurs, though, according to whom, more often than
to other groups of women, working for ‘somebody else’ did give such a possibility.
On the basis of the conducted research, the following profile of a female entrepreneur
was developed:
A female entrepreneur is a young, in general well-educated woman. Her business activity was preceded by working as a contract employee. She was motivated to change her
status by financial aspects as well as her aspiration for independence and taking advantage of prevailing circumstances.
Most often, she is in a stable relationship, although she has no children. She does not
give up on having them. Developing her motherhood plans enables her to have more
children than the average birth rate. She realises a family model based on the woman
being double burdened’, and she also tries to include her husband/ partner in the family duties (partnership model). She rarely takes care of her young children herself, entrusting them to other persons’ care (out-of-family, or her partner) or institutions of care.
Among the advantages of self-employment, she does not, however, perceive it as easier
to combine professional responsibilities with family duties.
GENERALLY SPEAKING, the research has shown that there is no such a term as „female”
and „male” entrepreneurship. All owners of small companies have similar hopes, expectations and fears; they face similar institutional barriers and fluctuations of economic situation. Cultural norms rejecting women as businesswomen are things of the past, and female
entrepreneurs are not afraid to take challenges and risks. Another generation of women
is extremely open to changes and tendencies to take risks. Similarly to men, they notice
the following factors supporting entrepreneurship: industriousness, patience, creativity,
innovativeness. Women’s knowledge on entrepreneurship is equal to men’s. There are also
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gradual changes in family model in favour of partnership. There is still one, although
very crucial, factor worsening the position of women running their own company towards men – being burdened with care-taking responsibilities for children, especially the young ones. Thus, the basic problem is to combine running a business activity
with motherhood, which should be aided by proper solutions supporting caring functions
of the family. However, it should be decided to independently initiate support instruments
of entrepreneurship addressed to all – regardless of gender – and, to a certain degree, also
taking women’s situations into consideration, resulting from their other social role connected with their motherhood.
RECOMMENDATION2
I. Policy of supporting small and middle-size businesses, addressed to all entrepreneurs
Limiting administrative-bureaucratic barriers:
Lowering the barrier to the access to business activities through the expansion of range
of CEDIG-1 forms, so that it would not be necessary to discharge duties in other public
offices; extending electronic contact with institutions through ePUAP platform, in particular integrating it with ZUS (Social Insurance Office) and speeding up the process of delivering necessary certificates and limiting, to a necessary degree, the area of the licensed
business activity. General simplification of regulations by means of stabilising the accepted
solutions, particularly in the tax field; limiting, to a crucial level, informative and reporting
responsibilities to public offices; simplifying the access to the institution of tax credit, used
actually on a very small scale; adapting requirements connected with Safety and Hygiene
of Work, sanitary-epidemiological and fire regulations to realistic needs of small and middle-size companies – though maintaining the necessary standards.
Limiting financial barriers: introducing an effective system of obtaining support for
entrepreneurship development; expanding the network of Advisory Centres as part of the
National System of Services (KSU), which provide information regarding running business,
also about the possibilities of obtaining financial resources to develop companies; introducing, currently used as a test, the service of assistance to run a business activity into
the regular offer of KSU centres; taking informative-promotional actions addressed to small
and middle-size entrepreneurs, presenting the activity of loan funds in Poland; creating
a portal – information database – on the possibility of obtaining resources from venture
capital funds, especially from seed capital.
Developing business incubators through ensuring, in a new perspective, means to create business incubators, offering entrepreneurs usable area, consultancy, access to subsidies and other conveniences – the so-called `start package’. Building up the competences of entrepreneurs through preparing an offer of free or partly paid trainings
and workshops providing very practical knowledge in running a company; managing
it simplifying the access to broadband Internet which is becoming a key tool giving the
possibility of development of small companies.
2
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The recommendations were prepared by means of using results presented in the study of empirical research.
Selected suggestions included in the expertise edited by A. Kurowska, Law supporting the women entrepreneurship in Poland. Recommendations of change, PARP, Warsaw, 2011 were also used.
II. Recommendations addressed individually
Individualised support for female entrepreneurs: it is necessary to take individualised actions, taking a longterm specificity of the consumer into account: professional assistance to specific entrepreneurs, coaching, mentoring. It is also proposed to create networks of female entrepreneurs active in eg. support clubs/ groups, meetings where certain
aspects of running a business activity would be discussed, where the participants could
share their own experience, broaden their knowledge and build their potential.
Individualised school education: through providing essential knowledge in the system
of education, development of character features and proper attitudes supporting entrepreneurship. It is the responsibility of schools of higher education as well as the labour market
institutions in reference to the youth entering the labour market. It is necessary to draw
attention to individualising the educational paths of girls and women in order to level
their chances on the labour market and abandoning the stereotypes of female professions
in favour of arousing interest in the professions of the future. Greater emphasis should be
put on career advisory at the level of last grades of junior high schools. It is desirable to introduce such programmes as „Girls - let’s go to technical universities (in Polish “Dziewczyny na
Politechniki” ) and promote women as employers, managers and company owners.
III. Facilitating combining professional and family responsibilities
Development of social services – an urge to develop different forms of `out-of-family’ care by means of increasing the availability of care in nurseries and kindergartens. The
development of such institutions should become a primary objective of the local social
and family policy. Accepting the investment in the young generation as a primary objective of local social policy should lead to such a division of the budget that it would be possible to systematically increase resources to accomplish it. Other business actors should
be involved in these actions, especially non-government organisations and places of work.
It requires the adaptation of the network of institutions to local needs, creating real possibilities of access to their services for a greater number of children, improving and levelling
the quality of caring and educational services provided by institutions located in different
areas.
It is also necessary to make the regulations of functioning of childcare centres more flexible – adapted to the needs of their users – and to create other forms of care over children
(under the regulations on care over children under the age of 3-4 th February, 2011, Law
Gazette. nr 45, position 235). It should be supported by promotional campaigns, informative undertakings for those interested in starting such an activity, advisory services, organising trainings and workshops and substantive supervision over such an activity (by means
of specialised institutions). The support in incurring costs of taking care of children could
be in the form of caring-educational vouchers for all parents of children using nurseries
and kindergartens, and other forms of care, the worth of which would decrease along with
the increase in family income.
Accepting the costs of institutional care over children as tax deductible expenses, by which
the taxation base would be decreased. As far as women starting a business activity are concerned, these expenses would be related to the income they generate.
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Development of caring and cultural-recreational services for children and young
people at school age
It is necessary to take actions to increase the offer of caring, educational, and cultural-recreational services for children and young students at school age and expand the range
of after-school care over children in primary and junior high schools. They could be provided by both local governments and employers.
Social security benefits
There is a strong need to consider whether and on what conditions self-employed women
could use financial benefits at the time of suspending their business activity due to pregnancy and motherhood as part of social security system or any other public system of social
security.
Direct actions in favour of self-employed women in terms of their entitlement
to motherhood :
‚‚ Introducing reductions equivalent to obligatory fees on account of social insurance for
the period, in which the pregnant woman (entrepreneur) should not continue carrying
out business responsibilities in the current scope on the grounds of her child’s wellbeing and her own health (eg. working with the computer, business trips); on account
of the analogical solution giving her the right to be exempt from providing business
services along with retaining the right for remuneration, which contract employees
are entitled to – introducing reductions in payment of social insurance fees for the
period of the actual restriction of possibility to run business activity independently due
to health problems.
‚‚ Enabling women entrepreneurs during pregnancy and early motherhood to notify
of the suspension of their business activity, along with retaining the possibility of being
subjected to voluntary health insurance and taking advantage of benefits on account
of motherhood at the time.
‚‚ The possibility of submitting to voluntary health insurance by female entrepreneurs.
‚‚ Introducing the post-maternity leave for persons running their own business activity,
which could be in the form of suspending the business activity over the period of taking
care of the child, and recognising this period as non-fee one in work experience, essential to define the pension entitlement.
‚‚ Introducing directly, after maternity leave, the period equivalent to post-maternity leave
of contract employees, in which women running their business activity are entitled
to reductions in the amount of social insurance fees.
Incentives to starting a business activity by women working as contract employees: introducing the institution of `company preincubation’, enabling women to start
on the labour market: a short (several-month long) period which could be used by women
on maternity leave to test business ideas without the necessity to register the company.
Taking into consideration the fact that during maternity leave social insurance fees are
financed by the state budget, financial charges of women testing ideas of their business
activity would be minimised.
16
In every case, when the solutions refer to lowering the pension insurance fees,
it should be borne in mind that in perspective such actions result in adjournment
in the form of lower pension benefits.
Indirect solutions enabling women running their business activity to combine
professional duties with family responsibilities, in case when the father of the
child would be entitled to such a benefit:
Maternity leave: extending the scope of this leave on condition that the father of the child
will use it, and, at the same time, extending part of paternal leave and introducing the regulation under which the father uses part of maternity leave, to which the mother is entitled
to after giving birth to the child. Post-maternity leave: changing the child age limit, giving
the right to use post-maternity leave till the moment when the child is 8 years old. It could
be expected that this possibility will make the fathers take advantage of such benefits.
Development of WLB (Work Life Balance) and FFE (Family Friendly Employment)
programmes through increasing employers’ interest in the development of the network
of institutions providing caring, educational, recreational and sports services for children
and teenagers (subjective and objective sponsoring). It should be a notable incentive
to introduce tax deductions on account of sponsoring such centres. To promote the idea
of employers’ participation in the development of the aforementioned area, it is necessary
to take promotional and informative actions, for example, indicating benefits for places
of work (eg.in the form of contests ), take the issues of WLB and FFE in trainings for employers and at the managerial level into consideration as well as launch campaigns to make the
society aware of benefits of such programmes. The development of forms of care over
the elderly and the dependable is essential. Considering, on the grounds of demographical reasons, the increasing problems of care over this group of people, it is essential
to develop caring services at the patient’s home, matter-of-fact support (renting the rehabilitation equipment, development of transport and catering services) and support for family expenses connected with this care (introducing care benefit, paid as part of insurance
or public budget resources). It is also crucial to introduce a system of advisories and support
for families responsible for care over the elderly; psychological and physical support of the
minder, including their temporary replacement. Apart from care at home, caring services
provided by specialised centres should be developed as well.
Activities in favour of changing stereotypes about perceiving the roles of men
and women and developing partnership in the family require the promotion of the
partnership family model and positive examples in curriculum of school workshops
and classes in the form of informative and educational programmes, in the scope of educational and cultural institutions as well as in the mass media. Moreover, it is necessary to introduce actions supporting partnership in the family into the family counselling, and to promote greater involvement of fathers into care over young children (making use of paternal
and post-maternity leaves) and also to promote positive examples by means of campaigns
in the media. It can be enhanced by introducing studies on social-cultural roles and gender
stereotypes into curriculum (education in terms of health protection, upbringing preparing
to family life, civic competences and human rights – as far as gender is concerned).
17
Chapter I.
Female entrepreneurship in the light of current studies
Female entrepreneurship is a many-sided research area. It is of great interest for scientists
and practitioners not only in the field of economic policy of countries (in particular employment policy), but also lately in the field of population policy (family, demography). The variety of factors affecting professional activity of women in general, especially their entrepreneurial features, leads to the fact that the analysis of this phenomenon – especially in terms
of comparing it with other EU countries − requires a distinctive indication of specific reasons why certain structures and trends are developing.
1. The influence of entrepreneurship on economy
Small and middle-size businesses (SME) play a strategic role in European economy. The
development of SME is a key factor of economic growth and creating a greater number
of workplaces in the EU. SMEs were included as a focal part of the recently binding Lisbon
Strategy, supporting the growth and employment in 2005. The intention of the EU was
to fulfill the vision of the heads of states of EU countries and governments, dating back
to 2000 r., that is make the EU a world-class environment for small and middle-size businesses.
This postulate was put forward again in 2008 r., when the European Commission published „Small Business Act” (SBA)3, in which it was again emphasised that the needs of small
and middle-size companies should play a significant role in the policy of the EU. Moreover,
the EC marked that the ability to build the growth and innovativeness potential of SMPs
will be crucial to future welfare of the EU. ‘Small Business Act’ programme is part of the EU
policy whose aim is to strengthen SMPs, and through this enable them to develop and create places of work. In 2008 – 2010 the EC and membership countries of the EU implemented actions defined in SBA programme to limit administrative difficulties and simplify
the access of SMEs to subsidies and new markets. In June, 2010 the latest strategy of socialeconomic development of the European Union in the years 2010 – 2020, ’Europa 2020’ was
accepted. In this document it was again emphasised that SME made the greatest contribution into the employment growth in the EU. At the same time, the EC calls for a range
of actions aiming to improve the functioning of small and middle-size economic objects.
These actions particularly refer to improving business environment, limiting administrative
difficulties, better legal regulations and greater access to loans and credits. It is connected
with the general policy of refreshing and improving the banking-financing sector, simplifying the procedures of public ordering and patent registration.
At present, the EU faces one of the key challenges, which is the management of transformation process in the direction of knowledge based economy. Achieving a success in this field
results in more dynamic and competitive economy, numerous and better places of work
and a higher level of social integrity. In a broader – global context – characterised by constant structural changes and increasing competitive pressure, the role of small and middlesize businesses is becoming more significant, as they provide new places of work and play
3
18
KOM (2008) 394, First think on a small scale, Small Business Act programme for Europe, Announcement of the Commission to the European Parliament Council, The European Economic-Social Committee and the Regional Committee, Brussels.
a crucial role in increasing the well-being of local and regional communities.
Small and middle-size businesses are dominant as far as their number in the whole of EU
is concerned. They play a great part in generating of GDP (Gross Domestic Product), employing workers, foreign trade and innovative activity. In Poland this type of companies has also
been influencing the country’s economy since conditions for development of MŚP after
1989 were created4.
1.1. The number and structure of Polish businesses5
The findings of GUS (Central Statistical Office) show that the vast majority (96%) of active
enterprises, that is actually running a business activity, constitutes micro-businesses
(employing up to 9 workers). In 2009 there were 1 654 000 of such companies. Small businesses (employing from 10 to 49 workers) constitutes 2,8% of business objects (50 200
objects), and middle-size businesses (employing from 50 to 249 workers) – 1% (15800). The
smallest part of all active companies (0,2%) is made up by big businesses (with at least 250
workers). In 2009 there were 3 100 of them6 In comparison to the structure of companies
in UE-27 nations, attention should be paid to twice as bigger rate of small companies in the
EU (7%), quite similar participation of middle-size ones (1,1%) and identical rate of big companies (0,2%). As a result, the participation of micro-businesses is significantly lower than
in Poland (91,8%). It may indicate certain structural problems of micro-businesses in Poland,
which hinder a greater development of some of them (increasing the number of employers to 9+)7.
On account of the contribution of Polish MŚP into generating the GDP (Gross Domestic
Product), they deserve the title of the driving force of the economy. The participation rate
of small and middle-size companies in generating the GDP in 2008 was 46,9%. This level has
been maintained since 2003, which is shown in the chart.
Chart 1.
The participation of SMEs in Poland’s GDP in the years of 1999-2008 (%).
Source:
Report on SME sector in Poland, 2008-2009, PARP, 2010.
Analysing the structure of GDP generated by enterprises sector, a dominant position
4
Chądrzyński, K. (2007) ‘The influence of small and middle-size companies on economic growth in Poland
in 1995−2005’, Scientific Annual Volumes, v. X, b. 3.
5 Data according to NACE classification
6 Activity of non-financial businesses in 2009, GUS (the Central Statistical Office), 2011. 7
7 Ministry of Economy (2010) Entrepreneurship in Poland, Analysis and Forecast Department, Warsaw, page 35.
19
of micro-subjects can be noticed. In 2008 they generated 29,8% of GDP. Small companies
(without micro), middle-size and big ones generated respectively: 7,3%, 9,8% and 23,7%
of GDP. Among middle-size companies, a crucial contribution into GDP is made by private
manufacturing companies of industry section and companies active in financial counselling section. Small private businesses are dominant in other sections8.
From the point of view of the whole of economy, SME sector plays a significant part in creating places of work. According to GUS findings collected at the end of 2009 , the number
of employed in enterprises was 8 800 000 workers in total. In 2009 the decrease in number
of workers in enterprises as a whole and in SME sector was noticed for the first time. The
number of workers employed in the national economy in the years 2003 – 2009 is presented in the table below.
Table 1.
The number of employees in enterprises as a whole and in SME sector in the years of 2003
– 2009 (per thousand of persons).
Enterprises
2003
2004
2005
2006
2007
2008
2009
Enterprises as a whole
8 139
8 161
8 288
8 556
8 969
9 494
8 830
SME as a whole
5 829
5 812
5 869
5 993
6 220
6 619
6 234
micro
3 397
3 384
3 403
3 475
3 593
3 727
3 461
small
954
967
972
977
1 008
1 194
1 131
1 479
1 462
1 494
1 542
1 619
1 698
1 642
medium
Source:
Report on SME sector in Poland, 2008-2009, PARP, 2010; Activity of non-financial enterprises
in 2009, GUS, 2011.
After Poland’s accession to the EU, the average number of employed in SME sector, after
a slight decline in 2004, a year later it increased to the level of 5 819 000 persons, and then
increased by 2,1% in 2006 (up to 5 999 000 workers). At the end of 2009, the number
of employed in SME was 6 555 000 persons (comparing to 6 740 000 workers in 2008 ). The
data is presented in Chart 2.
20
Chart 2.
The number of employed in enterprises of SME sector in 2003 – 2009 (per thousand of persons).
Source:
Report on SME sector in Poland, 2008-2009 PARP, 2010; Activity of non-financial enterprises
in 2009, GUS, 2011.
8
Report on SME sector in Poland, 2008-2009 PARP (2010) PARP, Warsaw, page 28.
1.2. Polish businesses compared to the European Union
businesses
In the 27 EU countries business activity in industry and services is run by almost 20 mln
enterprises, 1,4 mln9 active subjects of which are in Poland – that constitutes 7,2% of all
businesses registered in the European Union.
The vast majority of the EU businesses are companies employing over 10 persons − they
make up almost 92%. In Poland there are more of them – nearing 96%. In all of the EU
countries there are almost 127 000 000 persons in total employed in businesses (non-subsidised). The greatest contribution in this total number is made by the countries which are
the largest as for the population. These are: Germany (20,7 mln of workers), Great Britain
(18,1 mln), Italy (15 mln), France (14,4 mln) and Spain (13,4 mln). There are 81,5 mln persons
altogether working in the industry and non-financial services sectors, which make up 64%
of the whole employment in the EU-27 nations. In other 22 membership countries there are
45 mln persons employed in enterprises sector. Poland is the leader among these countries
– with 7,6 mln employed in enterprises, which ranks the country number 6 in the EU-27
nations in terms of the employment scope in industry and non-subsidised services sectors,
and constitutes 6% of participation in the whole employment in the EU10. The percentage
participation of selected EU countries in the employment as a whole in industry and nonsubsidised services is presented in Chart 3.
Chart 3.
The participation of selected EU countries in the employment as a whole in industry
and non-financial services in the EU-27, 2005 (%).
18
16
14
12
10
8
6
4
2
Source:
Others
Hungary
S weden
Portugal
The Czech Rep
R oumania
Holland
Poland
Spain
France
Italy
Great Brita in
Germay
0
Report on SME sector in Poland, 2008-2009, PARP, 2009.
Among all employees in the EU-27 countries, the group of 126,7 mln persons , nearly 37,5
mln is employed in micro-companies, which constitutes 30% of the whole employment. In
Poland this rate is 1/3 higher and Polish owners of micro-businesses generate almost 40%
of workplaces in the economy. An average European micro-business is as small as the Polish one: it employs 2 persons. Compared to this, it should be noticed that there is a great
diversity of employees in big companies: on average, in a big company in the EU-27 nations
there work 1 042,5 persons, and in a Polish one 848,1, which is nearly 20% less. Poland is out9
EUROSTAT (2008) Statistics in focus. Industry, trade and services, http://epp.eurostat.ec.europa.eu. (Data refer to nonsubsided business sector with the exclusion of agriculture and fishery. 2005 data are the most recent. This note
refers to all data in this sub-chapter)
10 Balcerowicz, E. (2009) ‘Micro-businesses in Poland compared to the European Union’ [w:] Report on SME sector
in Poland, 2008-2009, PARP, pages 66-67
21
distanced by four countries: Greece, where micro-companies employ as much as 56% of all
employees in non-subsidised business sector, Italy, Portugal and Cyprus11.
2. The characteristics of female entrepreneurship
in the statistics
The analysis of the phenomenon, which is entrepreneurship, is not an easy task. Because
of its variety of forms, it is not possible to analyse it in a sufficient and satisfactory way using
only one approach/ method. In this context, an innovative research project Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) is of great importance. This project, being carried out in collaboration between Babson College (Boston) i London Business School since 1997, for the first
time enabled to compare a wide range of entrepreneurship spectrum by means of originally created methodology12.
Analysing the female entrepreneurship level worldwide in order to compare the situation
in our country and prepare recommendations, countries with similar culture and civilisation
level were mainly take into consideration. In the following analysis there will also be references to recently published report of GEM 2010, 2007 (at the time GEM, Report on Women
and Entrepreneurship13,in 2005 it was published), as well as Eurobarometr, Eurostat, ILO, GUS
database and other studies on female entrepreneurship conducted in Poland and the rest
of the world by different research centres. It should be noted that using so many sources
and different methodological studies may very often lead to difficulties with data continuity and their comparability.
2.1. Female entrepreneurship all over the world – a statistical description
A synthetic description of female entrepreneurship worldwide will be presented below,
including percentage female participation among entrepreneurs, on the grounds of GEM
research from 2007 and 2010 and Eurostat statistics. There will be indicated the greatest
inequalities in terms of women’s participation among entrepreneurs and the dynamics
of women’s participation among the self-employed and the employers. There will also be
a short description of the structure of businesses run by women and the social-demographical characterisation of female entrepreneurs.
Business activity differs worldwide in terms of its level and type, but countries with a similar
GDP level per capita show similar tendencies. Regardless of the gender, the level of entrepreneurship14 is significantly higher in groups of countries with low and average income
11
Ibid, page 67
According to the definition made for the needs of GEM, the enterprise means activities undertaken by units, teams
and companies in order to establish new companies or develop already existing ones. This relatively broad definition includes the so called self-employment as well. GEM, 2010.
13 Poland did not participate in the research, but was included in it in 2003 and 2004, to which we will refer in the
further part of the report. Poland became part of GEM again in 2011 – the project was conducted by PARP and the
University of Economy in Katowice. The results will be available in 2012.
14 The basis of GEM analysis are studies carried out on a representative group of adults (at the productive age of 18
– 64). The aim of this study was to identify to what degree people get involved in business activities and what
their attitude towards enterprise is. The level of enterprise, in the terminology of GEM known as entrepreneurial
activity, includes a number of people running their business for at least 3 and a half years (the so-called Established
Business Entrepreneurs), a number of people running their business for less than 3 and a half years (the so-called
New Entrepreneurs) and a number of people who at the time of the study were trying to start a new business
or in the last 12 months undertook actions to set up a business activity (the co-called Nascent Entrepreneurs). The
same methodology is used when facts and figures refer to female enterprise. GEM, 2009
12
22
than in wealthy ones. However, gender gap at the level of entrepreneurship is noticeable
in all three groups of countries, the biggest differences being typical of countries with high
income, though. Generally speaking, men are more willing to get involved in business activity than women, but there are interesting exceptions, eg. in Japan female entrepreneurship is ahead of male entrepreneurship. The greatest participation of women among
entrepreneurs as a whole is in Thailand (45,4%), Peru (38,4%)15 and Canada (34,0%)16.
The chart below shows male and female participation among male and female entrepreneurs in selected countries.
Chart 4.
The participation of men among male entrepreneurs and the participation of women
among female entrepreneurs in selected countries in 2007 (%).
60
50
40
Men
30
Women
20
10
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
China
Finland
France
Greece
Hungary
Ireland
Italy
Japan
Latvia
Holland
Norway
Peru
Portugal
Russia
Spain
Sweden
Thailand
Great Britain
The USA
Canada
0
Source:
Independent study based on Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM, 2007; data
on female entrepreneurship in Canada come from Orser, Canadian Women Entrepreneurs,
Research and Public Policy: A Review of Literature, University of Ottawa, 2009.
Analysing Eurostat statistics it could be noticed that also in the European Union men outdistance women as far as entrepreneurs are concerned. This tendency was observed in the
years 1995 − 2009.
In 2009 the highest rate of women among all entrepreneurs17 was noticed in Portugal
(40,35%), Austria (35,2%), Latvia (36,5%) and Lithuania (37,5%)18. The lowest rate of female
entrepreneurs was in Malta (17,0%) and Ireland(18,7%). Analysing the years 1998 − 2009
certain tendencies in the level of female entrepreneurship could be observed. In some
countries the level of female entrepreneurship has been similar over the last ten years, without much fluctuation. Among these countries are Ireland (18,6), Sweden (27,6), Great Britain (28,8), The Czech Republic (27,3), Finland (32,7) and Poland (34,4%)19. In most European
countries female entrepreneurship was increasing at the end of 1990s; however in 2000
a drop in female participation among business owners was experienced. A particular
case was Estonia, where female participation increased significantly – from 31,1% in 1998
15
16
17
18
19
I.E. Allen, A. Elam, N. Langowitz, M. Dean, Global Entrepreneurship Report on Women and Entrepreneurship, GEM,
2007, page 12.
Orser, B. (2009) Canadian Women Entrepreneurs, Research and Public Policy: A Review of Literature, University
of Ottawa
Self-employed and employers were included in the group of entrepreneurs; source: EUROSTAT i ILO.
The figures were even bigger if only self-employed women were considered. In Portugal women made up 46,2%
of all self-employed, and in Latvia it was 43,88%.
EUROSTAT data referring to the year 2009, 2010.
23
to 38,5% in 2000; however, a year later a drop by almost 10% was noticed – to 28,88%. It
is the biggest drop in female participation among entrepreneurs20.
Over the following years (2001 - 2006) female participation among self-employed
and employers, though in different countries and at a different pace, had a growing tendency. The fastest growth was in Denmark, Luxembourg and Malta. Till 2006 in 13 countries of the European Union there was an increase in female participation among business
owners; the greatest increase was in Cyprus – 10,3%. The following years (till 2009) experienced further, though slow (from 0,5 to 2%), growth and stabilisation of the level of female
entrepreneurship in the European Union. In 2009 female participation among employers
and self-employed in the EU-27 nations was 30,5%. In 2009 in all countries of the EU the significant majority (69%) of entrepreneurs were men. The biggest discrepancies regarding
the gender were observed in Ireland and Malta (respectively: 62,6 % and 66 %). The most
equal participation of men and women among all business owners was noticed in Portugal, where the difference was only 7,921.
Chart 5.
Female and male entrepreneurs as a whole in the EU countries in 2009
90%
80%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
Europe an Union 27
Belgium
Bulgaria
Czech Republik
Denmark
Germany
Estonia
Irland
Greece
Spain
Frasnce
Italy
Cyprus
Latvia
Lithuania
Hungary
Malta
Netherland
Austria
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Slovenia
Slovakia
Finland
Sweden
United kingdon
Turkey
Norway
Men
Women
Source:
EUROSTAT database, 2010 r.
Companies run by women include all main industry sectors and fields, which is the case
of the companies run by male entrepreneurs. However, the greatest participation of female
entrepreneurs is in the fields directed at consumers, followed by processing and business services. The lowest participation is in the mining industry. Attention should be paid,
though, to significant differences in women’s preferences in the countries with low or average level of GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and in countries with high level of GDP per capita. Women from the countries with average and low income more often ran their business
activity in consumer-oriented sector (60,2%) than women from the countries with high
income (45,2%). The opposite tendency is observed in terms of business services sector.
Here, women from richer countries ran their business more often than women from poorer
or moderately rich countries (6,0%)22.
20
EUROSTAT data, 2010.
Ibid.
22 Allen, I.E., Elam, A., Langowitz, N., Dean, M. (2007) ‘Report on Women and Entrepreneurship’, Global Entrepreneurship
Monitor.
21
24
Chart 6.
Female participation in separate industry fields divided into groups of countries (%).
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
M ining industry
Europe and Asia - low GDP
High GDP countries
Source:
Processing
Business services
Customer
- oriented activity
Latin America and the Carribeans - low GDP
‘Report on Women and Entrepreneurship’, GEM, 2007 r.
Women running their business activity are most often at the age of 35 – 44. The probability
of business involvement is 3 – 4 times higher among female employees (full-time or parttime) in comparison with women who are unemployed or pensioners and students. It indicates that having a job may provide access to resources, social capital and ideas, which
could be helpful in starting a business activity.
Female entrepreneurs from the countries with high income are characterised by having a higher education level than those form moderately rich countries. While over half
of female entrepreneurs has a higher education level and one fourth graduated from university or other school of higher education, in the countries of low and average GDP income
female business owners have mainly secondary education level (25,1%) or vocational education level (39,7%). Higher education level is common for 17% of female entrepreneurs23.
The previous British research, conducted among 9 thousand persons and over 5 thousand
households, and with the aim to show the discrepancies between female and male entrepreneurs, differentiated higher and better education levels of women as one of the crucial differences24. Moreover, Polish research indicates that the increasing number of self-employed
women proves that women are open to entrepreneurship and show entrepreneurial features, which enable them to overcome social barriers successfully and actively participate in economic processes. Women show the characteristics thanks to which they easily
become part of modern, that is partnership and participatory, marketing, to a larger degree
aimed at people rather than objectives and tasks of the company. Objectively speaking,
they are desirable bosses as they often have qualifications and skills supported by MBA
graduation certificates or doctorate degrees25.
The presented statistical data show that although women constitute lower rate of entrepreneurs in comparison to men, in many countries, also those with the worse economic situa23
Ibid, page 29-30.
Audretsch, D.B. (2003) Entrepreneurship. A survey of the literature, DG Entreprise, EC, page 41.
25 Lisowska, E. (2001) ‘Female enterprise barriers’ [w:] Kożuch, B. Women entrepreneurship – the challenge of the 21st
century, publishing company in Bialystok, Bialystok, page 34.
24
25
tion and lower level of growth, they play an active part in the economy growth and development. It is also noticeable that female entrepreneurship is influenced by education
and social transformations in highly-developed countries of Europe and North America.
It could be concluded that the statistics reflect the process of intensive social and educational transformations, which will be presented below.
2.2. Female entrepreneurship in Poland – a statistical
description
The expansion of self-employment in Poland during the first years of transformation resulted from unblocking barriers for its development at the turn of the 80s and the 90s of the
20th century. The activity of individuals mainly played a significant role in this process26,
in which women in Poland actively participated. Unemployment threat and slimmer chances of finding a job in formal sector as well as difficult access to managerial positions were,
along with general new chances connected with transformation, crucial reasons why they
became interested in self-employment. The highest rate of the increase in companies
established by women was observed during the first years of transformation, when light
industry factories were closed down and women lost their jobs on a large scale27. This data
is presented in the table below.
Table 2.
Women working as contracted employees and self-employed women, excluding agriculture in 1989 – 2001.
Detailed list
1989
1990
1991
1992
1995
1998
2001
8 032
7 458
7 110
6 936
7 077
7 685
7 129
2 271
2 243
2 395
2 435
2 318
2 699
2 577
Self -employed (excluding agriculture - in thous.)
299
395
567
621
517
640
511
% entrepreneurs among all working
women
3,7
5,3
7,9
8,9
7,3
8,3
7,2
27,1
28,1
33,3
35,8
36,9
40,2
37,0
Employed in the economy (thous.)
Self-employed (in thous.)
% women among all entrepreneurs
Source:
Lisowska, E. (2004) ‘Female enterprise in Poland’ [w:] Gender vs economic possibilities
in Poland: have women lost much due to transformation?, Report No 29205, World Bank,
Warsaw.
During the whole period of transformation (1989 − 2001) it was clearly noticeable that
there were more women being self-employed than men (respectively: 170,9% i 104,3%)28.
However, the year of 2003 brought a reverse tendency: men twice as often as women started their business (on average one out of three women ran a company). The female participation among all entrepreneurs dropped by 4% – from 39,8% in 2002 to 35,8% in the following year. The years to come experienced a further drop in female participation among all
entrepreneurs (including employers). In 2009 r, according to Eurostat data, the participation
rate was 34,3%; even lower rates are observed as far as female employers are concerned.
26
Kryńska, E. (2001) Dilemmas of Polish labour market, IPiSS, Warsaw.
Lisowska, E. (2004) ‘Female enterprise in Poland’ [w:] Gender vs economic possibilities in Poland: have women lost
much due to transformation? Report No 29205, World Bank, Warsaw.
28 Ibid, page 48.
27
26
In 2009 they constituted 29,3% comapred to 73,6% of men, it was the lowest in 1989 −
2009. The highest rate of female employers was in: 1999 (31,5%), 2000 (31,3%), 2004 (31,2%)
and 2005 (31,0%)29.
2.3. Female entrepreneurship in Poland compared to the EU
and the rest of the world
For years, female entrepreneurship rate in Poland (including self-employment rate) has
remained one of the highest in Europe as well as in the countries outside the continent.
According to OECD findings, showing self-employed women participation (including
employers, cooperative movement members and helping family members) among all
entrepreneurs, it appears that for years Poland has been one of the leaders in this field. It
should be pointed that the USA has one of the lowest rates, as for the percentage participation of self-employed women (table 3).
Table 3.
The participation of self-employed women among all working women and the participation of self-employed men among all working men in Poland and selected countries
of the EU, Japan and the USA in 2008 (%).
Self-employed as
a whole
Self-employed men
Self-employed
women
Belgium
14,2
17,0
10,8
Finland
12,8
16,8
8,6
France
9,0
11,6
6,2
Greece
35,1
37,8
30,9
Spain
17,7
20,9
13,3
Ireland
17,3
7,4
7,5
Japan
13,0
24,9
12,4
Germany
11,7
14,1
8,9
Sweden
10,4
14,5
5,9
The USA
7,0
8,3
5,6
Great Britain
13,4
17,8
8,2
Italy
25,7
30,1
19,3
POLAND
22,9
25,0
20,4
Country
Source:
OECD Factbook data, 2010.
According to the analysis of Eurostat, Poland is one of the leaders among the EU countries (6th position) as for the female participation among company owners (nearly 35%).
This rate fluctuates around the average rate for the EU-27 countries and includes the selfemployed and employers altogether.
29
EUROSTAT data, 2010.
27
Chart 7. Female participation among all entrepreneurs in 2009.
Portugal
Latvia
Lithuania
Austria
Pol and
Hol land
Bu lgaria
Finland
Hungar y
Estonia
Spain
Germany
EU 27
Belgi um
EU 15
Fran ce
Great Britain
Italy
Norway
Gre ece
Sweden
Cypr us
the Czech Republic
Slovaki a
Roumania
Slovenia
Denmark
Malta
45,0%
40,0%
35,0%
30,0%
25,0%
20,0%
15,0%
10,0%
Source:
5,0%
0,0%
Ir eland
45,0%
40,0%
35,0%
30,0%
25,0%
20,0%
15,0%
10,0%
5,0%
0,0%
Independent study on the basis of Eurostat data.
Portugal
Lithuania
Latvia
Austria
Hol land
Pol and
Bu lgaria
Hungar y
Finland
Estonia
Spain
Germany
Belgi um
EU 27
EU 15
Fran ce
Great Britain
Norway
Italy
Gre ece
Cypr us
Sweden
the Czech Republic
Slovaki a
Roumania
Slovenia
Denmark
Malta
Ir eland
The situation is even better if we take female participation among only employers into
consideration. Although the rates are lower, as they are reduced by the rates of the selfemployed, Poland takes the first place in the European Union as for female participation
among employers (29,4%).
Hungar y
Bu lgaria
Spain
Lithuania
Pol and
Hungar y
Bu lgaria
Spain
Lithuania
Pol and
Latvia
Latvia
Portugal
Roumania
Roumania
Portugal
Great Britain
Great Britain
Norway
Slovaki a
Slovaki a
Austria
EU 15
EU 15
Norway
Fran ce
Fran ce
Austria
Finland
Finland
Slovenia
Belgi um
Belgi um
Slovenia
the Czech Republic
the Czech Republic
EU 27
Italy
Italy
Germany
Ir eland
Ir eland
EU 27
Sweden
Sweden
Germany
Denmark
Denmark
Cypr us
Gre ece
Cypr us
Source:
Gre ece
Chart 8. Female participation among employers as a whole in 2009.
Independent study on the basis of Eurostat data.
A relatively high level of activity of Polish women in the entrepreneurship sphere may be
the outcome of two factors, which were mentioned already in the previous analyses. On
the one hand, Polish women feel greatly responsible for the financial well-being of their
families, which leads to starting a business activity. This approach is characteristic of countries with lower economic development. Here, ‘pushing-to’ self-employment factor would
be dominant. On the other hand, after 1990, especially among young, well-educated
women, there appeared motivations characteristic of highly-developed countries, where
women seek high income and self-development in business. In this case we refer to ‘pushing-in’ self-employment factor. Verifying this hypothesis was the subject of empirical studies, which will be expanded on in chapter III.
2.4. The characterisation of companies run by women
in Poland
‚‚
28
company size
Companies run by women are mainly not big, mostly they employ contract workers,
although there is a distinctive increase in female participation among persons providing
work, i.e. employers. In 2010 one out of three companies without contract workers (35,8%)
was run by women; the remaining number of this type of business subjects was owned
by men. As far as companies employing workers are concerned, business subjects run by
women constituted 38,8% of this type of companies (data from 2010)30.
‚‚
business activity sector
According to GUS (Central Statistical Office), male entrepreneurs most often run their business activity in the building sector (94,2% of participation among companies in this sector)
as well as transport and storage economy (87,3%). Women, though, most often start business activities offering all kinds of services (72,7%), dealing with health protection and social
security/ welfare (70,5%) and offering real estate services (49,3%)31.
‚‚
first-year survival rates
It was observed that for companies run by men the rate of surviving another year is usually
higher by 2-4% than in the case of female companies, the rate of surviving the third year
is already higher by almost 5 %. It shows that companies run by men stand a greater chance
of success32. In 2007 the rate of surviving the first year for companies established by women
a year before was 70,3%, and for companies with a male owner was 77,2%, that is it was
higher by 7% compared to companies with female owners. In 2009 the rate of survival for
companies established by men and women in 2004 was respectively 48,7% and 48,6%.
According to recent GUS research, it appears that there is a greater discrepancy in survival
rate for companies established by men and women. In 2010 the survival rate for companies
established in 2006 by women was lower than for the businesses set up by men (respectively 43,0% i 50,6%)33.
2.5. The characterisation of women in business
‚‚
female social-demo-graphical features
Female self-employment and being an employer for others is strongly co-related with education, age and place of residence. Female entrepreneurs in cities, as opposed to those
living in the country, are characterised by a relatively high level of education, particularly
it refers to women who are employers. Over 21% of female entrepreneurs, in comparison
with 18,9% of men, has higher education34. Female employers, compared to women who
do not employ workers, are generally better educated – 79% of them have at least secondary education level, and 29% of them have higher education level. Among self-employed
women in cities, relatively there are most economists (22% compared to 4% among men)
and technicians (20% compared to 33% among men), and then specialists in the arts with
higher education (women 15%, men 9%) and engineers (15% compared to 26% among
men)35.
30
31
32
33
34
35
GUS (2011) The conditions of starting and running a business, and the outlook for Polish enterprises started in 2005
-2009, GUS, Warsaw.
Ibid
Chmiel, J. (2005) The condition of MSP sector in 2003. Growth tendencies in 1994, PARP, Warsaw.
GUS (2011) The conditions of starting and running a business, and the outlook for Polish enterprises started in 2005
-2009, p. 41.
GUS, BAEL, 2011.
Lisowska, E., Female enterprise in Poland, p. 52.
29
Female entrepreneurs are mostly persons at the age of 45 +, married, with one or two children. Male entrepreneurs are also persons at the age of over 40, having a family36. Comparing
GUS findings from 2000 and 2011, it could be noticed that the participation of the youngest
men and women (below the age of 24) decreased – from about 4% level to 1,6% in case
of women and 2,3% among men; there was an increase among women at the age of 25 −
34 – from 19,7% to 20,0%, and among women at the age of 45 + − from 46,6% to 48,8%. In
other groups the participation of men and women remained at a similar level. Chart 9 presents female and male participation among the self-employed according to age.
Chart 9. Female and male participation among the self-employed (including employers)
according to age in the first quarter of 2011.
35
30
25
Women
Men
20
15
10
5
0
do 24
Source:
25-29
30-34
35-44
45-54
55-59
above 60
Independent study on the basis of GUS findings (BAEL 2011).
3. Motivations of starting a business activity – from
the female point of view
There are different reasons for starting a business activity. They are inner factors, the reasons
why people decide to set up their own companies. These are mainly psychological determinants. Analysing motivation factors when starting a business activity, there could be a certain diversity according to age noticed. Women more often (42,9%) than men (32,8%) start
a business as there is no other sensible alternative for them, and not because of the urge
to take advantage of the opportunity. Here, there are active `pushing-out’ factors rather than
‘pushing-in’ factors. More often the motivation is the necessity, lack of possibilities of choice
between the contract work and the business activity. Poland is no exception in this matter.
This situation occurs even in Scandinavia and New Zealand, where women have a greater
scope of employment and combining it with family responsibilities.
GEM 200537 research enabled to identify persons who are trying to start a business activity
in Poland. This research, conducted in October, 2004 on a representative group of Polish
adults, indicated that 3,9% of them tried to start new business, taking specific actions such
as looking for business setting, capital or partners. A detailed analysis of people declaring
to start business activity showed significant differences between men and women. Three
times less women (1,8%) than men (6,1%) took actions to make a head start in business.
The least discrepancies between men and women are among people who work part-time.
36
30
Lisowska, E. (2008) An analysis of women’s position on the labour market [w:] Lisowska, E., Kasprzak, R. (editor) Microbusiness marketing. A coursebook of a resourceful woman. SGH, Warsaw, p. 179.
37 Research conducted in Poland on all citizens in 2005.
There is a noticeable passiveness among unemployed women – only seven out of one
thousand took business actions. Unemployed men are definitely more active in this field –
one out of eight tried to set up his business in the autumn of 2004. Among people intending to start new business in the next three years, there are more men (26,7%) than women
(13,8%).
The findings of this research are compatible with Eurobarometr findings from 2009 and indicate that one out of two men opts for self-employment (51%) compared to about four out
of ten women (39%)38. The conclusions of GEM research on motivation for self employment
point to the fact that it is rather `pushing-out’ to business factor than ‘pushing-in’ factor that
is the determinant in the case of women (over half of the cases).
Information about push factors and pull factors to self-employment is also provided by
the qualitative survey conducted among 25 female enterprises in three regions of France.
The factors encouraging to start a business activity include the urge for independence
and success in their own business, and the dream about a specific kind of activity, eg. running a shop with clothes for children. Among the factors which `push’ them to their own
business, women listed lack of satisfaction with the contract work, loss of regular employment, the need to take over running a family business39.
The research conducted as part of `New qualifications, work and entrepreneurship for
women’40 project, carried out among nearly 6 thousand women – the project participants
(the unemployed at the age of 30+, with at least secondary education level) – provided
information on the reasons why women want to start their own business activity. Women
most often pointed to the following reasons for undertaking business activity:
‚‚ aspiration for independence and self-reliance in making decisions,
‚‚ urge to gain higher income (financial independence),
‚‚ possibility of professional development,
‚‚ negative experiences in contract work,
‚‚ prevailing conditions on the labour market,
‚‚ lack of other possibilities of employment,
‚‚ unemployment threat, greater assurance of self-employment.
In the light of the aforementioned information, the basic research issue in this area was
to identify to what degree women undertake a business activity out of necessity, perceiving it as life-long opportunity, and to what degree they do so as there is no other alternative in the form of contract work. In both cases, though, the support instruments must
be different. It was particularly crucial to determine the causes of the passiveness of the
unemployed women and to find, if possible, means of activating them41. There were also
such factors tested as the need to improve a bad financial situation regarding contract work
and the necessity to take over a family business. The aforementioned research issues were
the subject of conducted studies, which will be referred to in chapter III.
38
Eurobarometr 283 (2009), Entrepreneurship in the EU and beyond. A Survey in the EU, EFTA Countries, Croatia, Turkey,
the US, Japan, South Korea and China. Analytical report, Eurobarometr, the Gallup Organization.
39 Por.: Orhan, M., Scott, D. (2001) ‘Why women enter into entrepreneurship: An explanatory model’, Women in Management Review,16(5), p. 232-243.
40 Lisowska, E., Analysis of women situation on the labour market.
41 The following publication deals with barriers and activation ways regarding unemployed women: The social
and professional situation of the unemployed women. Barriers and stimuli to their professional activation (2001),
Kurzynowski, A. (red.), Warsaw School of Economics, Warsaw, describing the results of all-Poland research from
1999.
31
It was also studied how the expectations of female entrepreneurs could be met, who are
looking for professional development, independence and self-reliance – what instruments
would enable them to develop not only small, but also at least middle-size business providing employment to others. The answers to these questions are included in the analysis
of the results in chapter III.
At this stage, it is worth pointing to three phases of entrepreneurship development. Phase
One is thinking of starting a business activity, allowing such a possibility, yet without taking
specific actions in this matter. It is the phase preceding the moment of making a decision
about starting a business. Phase Two is the stage when the decision about starting a business has been made and specific actions have been initiated, eg. applying for the subsidy
to the activity, renting a place for the planned activity, looking for business partners, and so
forth. Phase Three is functioning on the labour market as an entrepreneur and developing
the company. Attention should be paid, though, that the motivations of starting and running a business activity (similarly to entrepreneurship determinants and barriers, described
further on) were analysed in all phases of entrepreneurship development.
Actions in favour of motivation support in terms of undertaking a business activity would
have to refer mainly to the phase preceding the decision about starting a business, so they
would mostly be educational actions both common, addressed to all women, and those
addressed only to specific groups, eg. the unemployed. Of significant importance would
be the lowering the initial barriers (eg. capital, bureaucratic) of entering the business area
(Phase Two), as it would really free women of worries connected with independence
in business. Motivation issues should also not be forgotten when it comes to women running their own companies (Phase Three). They would include encouraging women (education, psychological training, legal conveniences) to develop their companies, modernise
them, employ more contract workers.
4. Entrepreneurship determinants
Entrepreneurship is analysed worldwide in the context influenced by, among others, demographical structure, legal system, educational and political systems as well. The determinants are of outer character in reference to the entrepreneurial unit. Thus, the decision
about starting a business activity will be the result of the inner motivation, conditioned psychologically, and outer social-economical determinants. In every country, general national
framework conditions and entrepreneurial framework conditions42 are formed in a different
way. General national framework conditions refer to the features of the whole economy,
and, thus, also affect the possibility of entrepreneurial behaviours. The following are included in this category: economy openness, dynamics of its growth and development, currency
stability, effective activities of the markets. Entrepreneurial framework conditions are of significant importance when it comes to starting and developing the business activity. They
directly influence business enterprises, either supporting or hindering them.
4.1. Framework conditions of entrepreneurship
1. Capital accessibility – the accessibility of financial resources for new and developing companies, including all kinds of subsidies. The essential financial capital can be
32
42
Kelley, D., Bosma, N., Amorós, J.E. (2010) Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Global Report, Babson College.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
obtained from different sources: independent sources of those starting a business activity, sources of other investors, loans and credits, stock and shares emission, investment
funds, government subsidies and so forth.
Public policy (taxes, legal regulations and so forth) – the degree and direction of the
influence of the public policy referring to taxes, legal regulations and their effect on business activeness in terms of starting and developing new companies. The government
and local authorities are the most important institutions influencing the economic environment. They can actively and effectively favour starting and running business activity,
or they can strongly limit it and discourage potential entrepreneurs to fulfill their ambitions. That is why public policy regarding new and developing businesses is one of the
most important framework conditions of entrepreneurship.
Public programmes of entrepreneurship support – the existence of direct programmes
accompanying new and developing companies at all levels of authority, ie. national, regional and municipal. The support of public programmes at the time of starting
a company, building its legal and financial basis may be a crucial factor – if not the condition – in successfully entering the labour market, and then in maintaining the company’s position in a competitive environment.
Education and training – the level of training dealing with starting and managing new
and developing companies, and the quality and appropriateness of such education
and training to create and manage small, new, or developing business. The proper system of education, including the system at a high level at business schools and entrepreneurship faculties, may positively affect the motivation and ability to start and successfully run business activity. Education of children at the primary, junior high school and high
school level is of great importance. It is the time when the personality is shaped, habits
and intuition are developed; these are the conditions which influence successful undertakings in the adult life. It is also important to educate adults in the form of full-time,
post-graduate and other kinds of courses. At this level the main emphasis is on passing
on the knowledge and skills essential to run business activity.
Research and development – the range at which the expenditure on research
and development leads to creating new business possibilities, and whether the research
and development studies findings are accessible to new and already existing businesses. We refer to the access to information about new technologies and the possibility
of investing own or foreign capital in obtaining modern technologies.
Commercial and professional infrastructure – the influence of professional business
services, legal and bookkeeping services, and the institutions whose aim is to enable
and promote the decision about starting business activity. The success of companies
existing on the labour market depends not only on their own potential, but also on the
quality and possibility of cooperation with other companies – suppliers, subcontractors,
clients, advisory firms, banks, law firms and so forth. All these relations were described,
as part of GEM research, as the commercial environment of business.
Market openness/Entry barriers – the existence of formal and informal limitations (barriers) when starting business activity. The market characteristics, on which the company function, are crucial to achieve success. For a new business the market situation
is of crucial importance as first it must overcome market entry barriers, and then it must
maintain its position on the market.
Access to technical infrastructure – the possibility of using technical infrastructure by
33
new entrepreneurs such as roads system, telecommunication, the Internet ,electricity,
gas connections and so forth. A good system of roads and motorways enables entrepreneurs to relocate fast and transport their goods and services. On the other hand,
accessible and affordable municipal services (water, electricity, gas) and telecommunication services are the basis of effective functioning of the company from the technical point of view. Lack of all these elements leads to significant difficulties with running
business activity, which is reflected in its ineffectiveness.
9. Cultural and social norms – the range at which the existing social norms affect supporting or discouraging the decision to start and run business activity. What is taken into consideration here is the social perception of the entrepreneur, mentality, systems of values,
such features as independence, own initiative, willingness to take risks, creativity.
The defined entrepreneurship determinants refer to both men and women. It is believed,
though, that their importance for men and women may be different due to various factors
in making a decision about self-employment.
Both general national framework conditions and entrepreneurial framework conditions
described above are differently assessed in various countries. Poland is not the leader in this
field. According to the recent international GEM 2005 research, in which Poland also participated, entrepreneurship conditions were assessed the highest in highly-developed countries. The greatest discrepancies in entrepreneurship determinants in various countries refer
to government policy and entrepreneurship support programmes, scientific and development research, commercial and professional infrastructure, openness of inner markets
and access to technical infrastructure. Comparing the high level of rates determining entrepreneurship in different countries, it should be remembered that discrepancies about cultures and political systems in various countries may generate differences in entrepreneurship conditions – the attitude to entrepreneurship is more positive in some countries than
in others.
In GEM research it was accepted that in each of 42 countries taking part in the research there
will be the factors (entrepreneurship conditions) indicated supporting entrepreneurship
development and the barriers hindering its growth. Below, there is an assessment of entrepreneurial framework conditions in the countries taking part in GEM 2005 research.
In most countries the education factor (including both education at primary and secondary
school) is one of three worst assessed entrepreneurial framework conditions. The greatest
attention to teaching entrepreneurship attitudes to small and young children is paid in the
USA, Canada, Spain and Scandinavia.
The access to technical infrastructure gradually gains recognition in almost all countries. In
Poland the accessibility and costs of main municipal services was assessed positively; however, the road network and information progress were given very low assessment. Technical
infrastructure was assessed the highest in the USA, Canada, Island and Finland.
34
The leaders in obtaining and using modern technologies by new businesses are definitely
the USA and China, and in Europe companies from Finland and Ireland have the greatest
technological capacities. Polish experts assessed negatively the possibilities of new companies when it comes to obtaining new technologies. The greatest barrier is lack of capital for
the companies to invest in new technologies.
Commercial and professional infrastructure were assessed the highest in the USA, the worst
rates were observed in Brazil, Korea and Japan. Polish businesses can rely on competent services of banks, accountant offices and law firms in this matter. The situation is a little worse
when it comes to subcontractors, suppliers and consultants.
Government entrepreneurship programmes were assessed the highest in Germany, Ireland
and the USA, the worst assessment was in Russia. It indicates, as expected, that the involvement in entrepreneurship support is greater in highly developed countries where economy
is based on innovative solutions. The support of public programmes in Poland is treated
sceptically, and the average rate of index is below an average rate in all GEM countries
and similar to the rate of Central-Eastern Europe countries such as Croatia, Slovenia
and Hungary.
The situation is not so apparent when it comes to the assessment of public policy and government regulations. Among European countries, only in Finland persons who intend
to start business activity can rely on favours of public policy and government regulations
(eg. tax regulations).
Polish public policy, including the framework and stability of legal-tax environment, was
criticised by GEM experts. Tax system and legal regulations are unstable, and their changes
are unpredictable and illogical. In addition, the excess of bureaucracy makes the process
of starting business activity long and arduous.
Capital accessibility to new and developing companies in Poland was assessed very low.
Among 30 countries participating in the research in 2004, the worst situation was in Ecuador. The particular problem is greatly limited independent, financial resources. The accessibility to bank loans and credits in all kinds of funds was assessed critically as well. There
is lack of loans and credits to start business, being the basis of initial capital (seed capital,
early stage capital).
After the accession to the EU, there are various forms of financial support available when
it comes to starting and developing business activity, eg. an increased number of seed
funds, partly subsidized from European resources.
4.2. Other entrepreneurship conditions
There are other models of entrepreneurship determinants found in the literature.
An easier division of conditions, and at the same time more general, is suggested by Lisowska in the form of three groups of determinants43:
(a) educational – being entrepreneurial, development of entrepreneurial qualities, including creativity and self-esteem in the process of socialisation, school and out-of-school
education;
(b) social and cultural – society acceptance of company owners and private ownership;
the belief in own business being a good way to earn a living; the way of perceiving men
and women as entrepreneurs; stereotypes perceiving men and women as entrepreneurs; the existence of entrepreneurship potential in the society; the interest in running
business; the willingness to make a decision about running business activity;
43
Lisowska, E. (2001) Women entrepreneurship in Poland in comparison to Central and Eastern European countries, SGH,
Warsaw.
35
(c) economic – the system of regulations which describe how to start and run private
companies, the system of taxes and tax reductions, the system of loans and credits
and potential public support in the small and middle-size companies sector44.
Ministry of Economy presents a little different point on entrepreneurship determinants. In
an annual report on entrepreneurship in Poland45, apart from the aforementioned aspects,
attention is drawn to infrastructural entrepreneurship conditions, including road transport,
railway transport, maritime transport, inland water transport, air transport, information
and telecommunication infrastructure, mobile and stationary telephony.
4.3. Influence of selected conditions on male and female
entrepreneurship
However little (as it was already mentioned) is known about the diversity of influence of certain determinants on male and female entrepreneurship in Poland, the research of this
type has been conducted worldwide. Dutch scientists, as part of SCALES (Scenic Analysis of Entrepreneurship and SMEs46 programmes subsidised by the government, selected
several conditions which, in their opinion, diversify entrepreneurship level among men
and women in certain countries on a micro scale. They noticed that the low or high participation among female entrepreneurs is affected by the following determinants:
1. Technological development: women less often than men run a business in advanced
technology sectors, by which they do not use all the possibilities offered here.
2. Economical factors, including:
a) GDP per capita: wealth growth leads to demand for services (a scope for female
entrepreneurship);
b) unemployment: unemployment level affects female entrepreneurship as they are
mainly `pushed’ from work in times of crisis and have to look for income in the form
of self-employment;
c) the growth of services sector: women often locate their activity here.
3. Cultural factors: the values and beliefs influence entrepreneurial behaviours; thus,
it could be claimed that they affect the decision about self-employment. Among
the cultural factors we can distinguish the entrepreneurship culture (including many
aspects such as how entrepreneurship is perceived in the country; which are the dominant attitudes towards entrepreneurs, their successes and failures) and several features
of culture as a whole, including the relations with authorities, personal characteristics
such as individuality, masculinity (being aggressive, competitive, dominant, self-confident), the avoidance of insecurity and the expected perspective of success. It is assumed
44
36
Leszek Balcerowicz refers to economical factors as the foundations of development, as they reflect an important role of the country in economy, which is focused on its basic, essential functions and at the same time does
not restrict economic freedom. These foundations are: 1. Macro-economic stability, so low inflation and strong
exchangeable currency. 2. Free market and competition for free development of demand, supply and prices
3. Freedom in creating private businesses, as private ownership brings out in people more initiative. 4. Focus
on the outer world and export. 5. Reliable, politics-independent system of functioning of banks, investment funds
and the stock exchange. 6. Flexible labour marker. 7. A relatively low relation between taxes/ budget expenses
and national income and not too high costs of labour. 8. Political stability (according to Lisowska, E. (2001), p.
48–49).
45 Ministry of Economy (2010) Entrepreneurship in Poland, Department of Analysis and Prognosis, Warsaw, p. 106114.
46 SCALES (2003) Verheul, I., Thurik, A.R., Explaining the entrepreneurial activity rate of woman: A macro level perspective, Zoetermeer, p. 5-9.
that it is less likely that women have typically masculine features desirable when running a business such as assertiveness, willingness to take risks and determination. That
is why masculinity, as a feature so common in the culture, will have a negative influence
on female entrepreneurship.
Further studies as part of SCALES programme prove that the level of female and male
entrepreneurship (here, referred to as willingness to start own companies) is influenced by
the same factors, and at the same time some of them (eg. Unemployment or life satisfaction) affect it differently. Apart from the conditions mentioned in the previous paragraph,
in the most recent study attention was paid to social-demo-graphical factors (family situation, age, the level of education, gender, ethnical background, previous experience in being
self-employed) and institutional factors (capital accessibility, the system of care over children and maternity/ paternity leaves, costs of starting a business)47.
In Poland there is lack of classic research on female entrepreneurship determinants. The
work of Ms Czechowska-Bieluga brings up this issue, but refers to a relatively insignificant attempt in the area of Lublin. Moreover, what was included was not only the success
of business activity, but also the satisfaction with family life. In this research there were three
levels of social-professional functioning of the surveyed women distinguished: high, average and low. The high level indicates satisfaction with family life and professional life, awareness of success, prevailing social environment, optimal level of carried out responsibilities,
advantage of profits over losses48. The referred research conducted among female entrepreneurs from lubelskie province indicate that there are social-demo-graphical and family
determinants of female entrepreneurship. The author points to:
1. having children – among female entrepreneurs there is a significant co-relation between
having children and the level of satisfaction with running business showing that a relatively great number of the surveyed having children represented a low level of professional functioning. This relation may result from the specificity of running own business
activity. It is a job which involves personal engagement and significant effort in the form
of time. The reason for such a situation may also be the burdens of carried out responsibilities, not enabling women to function in an optimal way. it is worth mentioning that
over one third of the female respondents claimed that they were the persons mainly
responsible for care over their children;
2. having a partner – the analysis of the research findings showed a significant co-relation
between running a business activity by women (high level of functioning) and being
in a relationship. There appeared a regularity that high level of functioning is connected
with having a partner. It is of crucial importance that most often the surveyed women
received support from their partners. Many researchers are of the opinion that the support received from the partner is particularly beneficial for women functioning in business;
3. professional work of other family members also plays a crucial role in professional functioning of women. It is the situation when not only the woman earns a living. B. Bal-
47
SCALES (2006) Verhuel, I., van Stel, Thurik, A.R., Explaining female and male entrepreneurship at the country level, Zoetermeer, p. 10-23.
48 M. Czechowska-Bieluga, Success determinants of women running business activity „The pegagogy of labour”” 2007,
No 51, p. 125-133.
37
cerzak-Paradowska49 gives evidence that the financial situation and professional status
of the husband/ partner are among factors which significantly condition professional activity of women and functioning of their families. The research findings by Ms M.
Czechowska-Bielugia (among Lublin female entrepreneurs)50 proved this thesis. None
of the women running a business activity, being the only family member working professionally, did function on the high level.
On the other hand, according to E. Lisowska51, the greatest influence is made by social-cultural factors and education, including the process of socialisation. She shows that the majority of Polish society accepts both men and women as entrepreneurs, though these opinions
are affected by stereotypes. The presented determinants (as opposed to motivations) are
objective, easy to describe directly, without referring to the psychology of the individual. The aforementioned determinants are connected either with the activity of the state
or with the society characteristics, or with the features of the woman and her family.
The first group of determinants characterises different actions of the state, including those
affecting both genders in the same way, and those which, to some degree, are connected
with women. It marks the border of intervention of gender character. Thus, an attempt was
made to explain first and foremost whether such aspects as capital accessibility, fiscal policy, research and development promotion, and access to technical infrastructure are connected with the gender of the entrepreneur.
The second group of determinants is connected mostly with cultural norms already existing in the society, which address independence and own initiative mainly to men.
The third group (having children and a partner, professional work of other family members)
must also be described in the research as an entrepreneurship determinant. Realising socialdemo-graphical features of families, ways of support for them could be then identified.
The aforementioned determinants are the subject of empirical studies (reference in chapter III).
5. Barriers in entrepreneurship development
People wanting to run business activity face a lot of barriers on the way, referring to both
men and women. The knowledge on which barriers are particularly harmful to women
(especially in reference to Poland) is still very limited.
5.1. General entrepreneurship barriers
Generally speaking, the literature points to the following barriers hindering the growth
of small and middle-size enterprises. According to PKPP Lewiatan52 the following are of crucial importance:
‚‚
tax barriers
The biggest number of significant and bothersome barriers in running business activity has
been generated constantly for years by VAT regulations. Over 70% of small and middle-size
49
38
Balcerzak-Paradowska, B. (2003) `Family-friendly company’ [w:] Work-life programs, Borkowska, S. (red.), IPiSS, Warsaw.
50 Czechowska-Bieluga, M., Success determinants of women running business activity, p. 125-133.
51 Lisowska, E., Women entrepreneurship in Poland in comparison to Central and Eastern Europe.
52 Lewiatan (2010) The black list of barriers to entrepreneurship development, PKPP Lewiatan, Warsaw.
business owners believes that lack of clarity in tax regulations increases the risk of business
activity and generates costs which in an unjustified way burden their business and along
with that decrease their competitiveness. The rate of income tax is a crucial barrier for almost
70% of entrepreneurs. Admittedly, since 2004 the rate of income tax in Poland is 19%, it is
not at the competitive level, though. In countries such as Ireland, Cyprus, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania and Hungary the rate of CIT tax is already lower than in Poland53. The regulations
on real estate tax are bothersome as well, similarly to the definition of the building, because
of which applying the regulations causes doubts. In 2009 there was also no precise specification of doubts connected with applying binding interpretations.
The most important barrier of entrepreneurship development is too high out-of-salary labour costs (the so-called pair taxes), which influence the competitiveness of small
and middle-size companies, and limit their willingness to increase the company’s employment54 .
‚‚
employment barriers
An important barrier of the development of small and middle-size companies is inflexible
labour law, which does not provide solutions enabling to build teams of workers for specific projects. At the same time it limits the possibility of adapting the company to changes
in management conditions and decrease its competitiveness.
‚‚
administrative barriers
For almost 57% of SME55 the barrier of their development are administrative procedures –
bothersome, expensive, resulting from inappropriate law and its wrong application by public administration, and from the fact that the offices and their workers are not professionally prepared to work, eg. there are various interpretations of tax law in different tax offices
in Poland, time consuming, long-lasting and overlapping tax controls in companies; using
different exchange rates when calculating figures in foreign currency in accordance with
PIT, CIT, VAT and accountancy law; not followed by the tax offices regarding the dates of registration indicated in law acts and the dates to pass the documents further on. According
to World Bank findings, in 2009 it took 32 days to start business activity in Poland. Compared
to the whole of Eastern Europe, the average time to register a business was 17,4 days, and in
OECD countries only 13 days. The best situation in this field is in, among others, Belgium (4
days), Canada (5 days), the USA, Denmark, Great Britain, Portugal (6 days), France, Norway (7
days)56. Public administration cooperating with businesses involves too much bureaucracy
and is not flexible enough. There is lack of information flow system between the public
offices and the enterprises sector.
53
Ireland – 12,5% (not all kinds of activity), Cyprus – 10%, Estonia – the income of the company is tax-free, if it is
not paid to shareholders and partners; dividends and other transfers are paid at the tax rate of 21%, Latvia – 15%,
Lithuania – 15%, Hungary – 16%. In 2008 also Bulgaria lowered CIT to 15%.
54����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
It is confirmed by MŚP owners, among whom 62,3% claim that lowering out-of-salary labour costs would positively influence the employment level in terms of possibilities of further employment and decreasing grey area as
for the employment, which business owners assessed as 19%. in 2009.
55 Lewiatan, The black list of barriers to entrepreneurship development
56 Doing business (2011) Making a difference for Entrepreneurs, World Bank, Washington.
39
‚‚
shadow economy
The existence of shadow economy is a barrier for over 59% of MSP57 – concealing the income
and employment figures by companies. It is a crucial barrier as the range of concealing
the income by companies is increasing, according to company owners. For companies run
in accordance with law, the existence of shadow economy means that their competitiveness is lower – the incurred costs and the public duty they pay are higher than in companies concealing part of income and employment figures.
‚‚
competition on the part of privileged businesses
The position of privileged businesses is built on the access to public assistance. It mainly refers to state-owned units. It is pointed here to activities in special economic zones,
remitting taxes and social insurance fees to some companies, providing public assistance
to big enterprises of high importance to the economy and difficult access to the EU funds
by small companies. As it was already indicated, the aforementioned barriers refer to all
entrepreneurs regardless of gender; however, some of them are particularly bothersome
to women, and, what is more, there are barriers characteristic of female entrepreneurship.
5.2. Entrepreneurship barriers as far as gender is concerned
According to Eurobarometr findings from 200758 , more women than men list lack of financial sources to run a company and lack of abilities connected with entrepreneurship as
the main reasons for not undertaking business activity. More women (77%) than men (73%)
agree with the statement: ‘It is hard to start own business due to lack of financial support.
Similarly, more women (53%) than men (43%) agree with the statement: `You shouldn’t
start business activity if there is risk of failure involved’. On the other hand, lack of business
concept as a barrier to start business activity is mentioned less often by women than men.
The concentration of women, to a greater degree than of men, in micro-, small and middlesize businesses, results from lack of financial security, lack of loan/ credit history, their family
responsibilities and their abilities. The regulations which are neutral in terms of gender, eg.
administrative regulations, very often lead to diversified, as for gender, results, according
to which women rather than men are more prone to difficulties with starting and managing business activity – it refers to, eg. the amount of the loan/ credit. Findings from 34 countries, including 26 states of Eastern Europe and Middle Asia, indicated that female businesses experienced a lower probability of getting a loan by 5% and the necessity to pay higher
interest rates (by 0,5% on average) than companies run by men59.
The barriers particularly experienced by women in Poland are indicated by Lisowska. These are:
‚‚
57
Lewiatan, The black list of barriers to entrepreneurship development
Eurobarometr 196 (2007) Survey of the Observatory of European SMEs. Analytical report, Eurobarometr, the Gallup
Organization.
59 World Survey (2009) World Survey on the Role of Women in Development Women’s Control over Economic Resources
and Access to Financial Resources, including Microfinance, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, New York.
58
40
Educational barriers, that is lack of information and broader knowledge on how to start,
manage and develop one’s own company as well as high costs of trainings on managerial and team building skills. Women, more often than men, pay attention to the need
‚‚
‚‚
to strengthen their faith in their own success and to acquire skills of teamwork. Female
entrepreneurs are aware of the fact that they constantly have to learn and broaden their
knowledge. Levelling the educational differences should occur through easily accessible
trainings adapted to the needs of women. These needs are focused around the issues
dealing with the methods of motivating the employees, sensible management of their
own psycho-physical potential, effective management of the company development,
information about the sources of loans for small and middle-size businesses. The experience of Scandinavian countries, the USA and Canada shows that women are more willing to use the offered help when it is appropriately adapted to their needs and given by
other women as part of selected female entrepreneurship centres60.
Traditional socialisation – the dominant way of socialisation in Polish homes and schools
is the one when girls are prepared mainly to caring functions, ie. to being a good wife
and mother, and not to being active in the professional field, independent and achieving success. As a result of such upbringing, women very often lack self-confidence
and faith in their own abilities, `the so-called trained helplessness, accounting failures
for personality characteristics, and successes – outer factors”61. The barrier in running
a company, also resulting from the way of upbringing, is too often women’s involvement in the company’s issues and personal problems of their employees. This type
of partner management is not always effective in traditional societies and in the situations when the employees are men – workers62.
Barriers in access to financing – a frequently mentioned barrier referring to running
business activity by women is the difficulty with obtaining capital to start or develop
the company. It is not agreed on whether the lack of capital accessibility makes female
businesses develop slower or the smaller size of female companies and their participation on the market influence banks and private equity institutions to refuse to finance
female companies. Female businesses receive lower loans with higher interest rates.
Female companies finance their business activity to a definitely greater degree using
their own resources (80% of female businesses and 65% of those run by men).
A significant barrier in starting and developing female companies in Denmark is lack of capital accessibility. Women come across specific barriers when they want to obtain capital
to start their own business. The research among 2,000 Danish entrepreneurs starting their
business activity, including 500 women, showed that female businesses really possess less
initial capital than the companies run by men63.
According to a study conducted among Hungarian company owners, their main barriers
in access to financial resources result from difficulties with getting a bank loan. It is mainly
caused by lack of possessions in the form of real estate, land or so forth, which provide loan/
credit security64.
On the other hand, a relatively low level of female participation among entrepreneurs
in Sweden, the country with a highly developed process of gender equality, results from
60
61
62
63
64
Lisowska, E. (2001) ‘Barriers to women entrepreneurship’ [w:] Kożuch, B., Women entrepreneurship – the challenge
of The 21st century,publishing company of University in Bialystok
Ibid, p. 29.
Lisowska, E., Women entrepreneurship in Poland in comparison to Central and Eastern European countries, p. 87.
Audretsch, D.B. (2003) Entrepreneurship. A survey of the literature, DG Entreprise, EC, p. 41.
Lisowska, E., Women entrepreneurship in Poland in comparison to Central and Eastern European countries, p. 28-29.
41
the hindered access to bank loans as banks are mostly interested in big companies, while
women are owners of small businesses and generally do not need enormous credits65.
5.3. Barriers in women entrepreneurship
Compared to the apparent situation referring to universal barriers, it should be emphasised
that there are particular barriers come across only by women, which hinder the process
of starting business activity, developing it and being competitive on the business market.
This is the role of social-cultural barriers, that is culturally conditioned stereotypes, according to which the woman is meant to be the wife and the mother, and their place is at home
with their family. It is also connected with the perception of women’s work as less important than men’s and it being accepted as long as the woman does not neglect her family
responsibilities. These stereotypes develop a sense of low self-confidence in the woman,
not desirable when it comes to developing entrepreneurial characteristics and making
the decision about starting their own company. It is not also supported by the fact that
women do not as often as men make contacts which enable them to receive help when
starting and developing business activity. The cultural barriers and traditions, rooted deep
in the society, lead to lack of good atmosphere for big economic undertakings by women.
Although there were significant social-cultural and economic changes taking place in societies, women still find it more difficult than men to start their own business, mainly due
to lower self-confidence, which is influenced by social disapproval of their competences
and their social roles of mothers and wives, and not businesswomen66.
Thus, it is important to promote equality approach to the roles of women and men in the
society and family, and to promote women in non-traditional roles, including the role of the
company owner.
According to the aforementioned information, as far as barriers are concerned, the key
problem is to identify those which do not apply to everybody, though in particular they
influence women. In the conducted research the aim was to explain whether the traditional barriers connected with socialisation and education are of specific character here, or the
barriers connected with the access to capital or the process of discharging small companies
into shadow economy are of importance as well.
6. The level of knowledge on starting and running
business activity
Analysing the entrepreneurial issues, the question appears whether men and women have
an equal level of knowledge on starting and running a business activity.
In the light of research, women assess their knowledge and skills necessary to start and run
a business as much worse than those of men67.
65
Lisowska, E., Barriers to women entrepreneurship, p. 28-29.
Ibid, p. 27-28.
67 The aim of the analysis was to focus on the research findings conducted among entrepreneurs, so this chapter
presents the level of knowledge on running a business activity among people who ran a company or intended
to start it.
66
42
The respondents of GEM 2005 research were asked the question: „Do you have the knowledge, skills and experience necessary to start a new business?”. A positive answer was given
by 55,1% of them, which means than Polish adults assess their knowledge well in terms
of their own business. Men assessed their knowledge much better than women (45,6%).
There is not such discrepancy between the city residents (57,3%) and the country residents
(51,3%). When running business activity, it is important to have a wide range of contacts
in the business environment (the so-called social capital), enabling them very often to solve
different problems or look for the market for their services. One out of two Polish adults
knows someone who has started business activity in the last two years (52,6%). Men more
often (58,8%) than women (45,3%) know some entrepreneurs who started their business
not so long ago68.
According to GEM 2005 experts, women in Poland have equally good knowledge and skills
necessary to enter the labour market and run a business activity. It is not surprising
when it comes to official rates of education, which are more favourable to women. From
the experts’ point of view, women do not have much worse possibilities to start their own
business than men, despite the fact that the social services, which enable women to continue working even when they start a family, are not widely available in Poland.
Women have an ambivalent attitude to their competences. Although they would like
to have their own business, they are afraid of taking risks and failure.
According to the research on views and attitudes of adult women in Poland, conducted by
CBOS in 2007 as part of „New qualifications, work and entrepreneurship for women69 project, over half of Polish women (52%) believes that it is better to be self-employed rather
than be an employee. At the same time, many Polish women claim that running business
activity involves too much risk (79,7%) and is a complicated process (57,5%), and admit that
they lack practical information necessary to start their business70. Women lack knowledge
on law and trade; however, a good solution to this problem is trainings in which women
willingly participate. Businesswomen in the region of Great Poland (Poznan)71, asked about
educational barriers which make it difficult for them to run a company, claimed that
the greatest problem is lack of knowledge on accountancy, tax law, labour law and their
branch field. The research findings show that lack of knowledge is the greatest problem
for women who did not participate in trainings. Only 10% of women declared that in the
last four years they took part in trainings on management and accountancy, and 36%
of them participated in trade trainings. In these companies 50,8% of women claimed that
they lack knowledge on accountancy, 46% -- tax law and 19% -- branch field. On the other
hand, female entrepreneurs who took part in trainings on accountancy and management
felt they lacked knowledge on tax law (42,1%), to a lower degree on accountancy (34%),
labour law (28,9%) and branch field (18,4%). For female entrepreneurs taking part in trade
68
Bacławski, K. (2005) ‘The analysis of entreprenurship in Poland in 2004’ [w:] Global Entrepreneurship Monitor, Bachal�������
ski Educational Foundation, University of Economics in Katowice, Poznań, p. 35-37.
69 The project conducted by Warsaw School of Economics and Polish Chamber of Commerce: Lisowska E., Kasprzak,
R. (red.) (2008) Micro-business managing. The guidebook for the entrepreneurial woman, SGH, Warsaw.
70 Kuczyński, W. (2008) ‘A new generation of women among micro-business owners’ [in:] Micro-business managing.
The guidebook for the entrepreneurial woman, Lisowska, E., Kasprzak, R. (editors.), SGH, Warsaw, p. 197-205.
71������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Data come from a survey on small companies run by women (80 companies) and by men (59 companies), conducted by University of Economics in Poznan and Higher Vocational State School in Kalisz in the region of Great
Poland in 2005: Mizgajska,H. (2010) The influence of education on motivations and barriers to women entrepreneurship based on Wielkopolska experience University of Economics in Poznań, Poznań.
43
trainings, the insufficient knowledge was on accountancy (60%), tax law (42,4%) and labour
law (24,2%). Lack of knowledge on tax law is felt by all surveyed groups of women72. The
surveyed female company owners emphasised that the problem is not only the legal regulations and the access to them, but mostly it is their interpretation changing constantly,
resulting very often from their ambiguity and contradiction.
The reason why women lack knowledge on their branch field is lack of professional experience by women, as half of them worked in a different profession before starting their
own company. According to Great Poland research, the respondents relatively less often
experience the influence of lack of knowledge on management and marketing on running business activity. These conclusions prove the research on the need for training services, published by PARP in 2004 , according to which the trainings on finances and tax law
were the most popular. However, the trainings on advisory and management and marketing were much less attractive for company owners73.
Summary
The aforementioned information on the importance of small and middle-size companies
for the economy, and on the other hand (mentioned before) difficulties of modern societies with demo-graphical structure, lead to the conclusion that it is necessary to activate
the workforce resources which have not been active in the economy so far. It refers mainly
to women, including those with family responsibilities.
According to the statistics from different sources, there is a high activity level of Polish
women in the entrepreneurship field, compared to European countries and the countries outside Europe. It may result from the clash between traditional elements – `pushing’
women to business – and modern ones – attracting’ women to it.
Analysing the statistics referring to the characterisation of companies run by women
and the characterisation of women running a business activity, on the one hand, the influence of cultural factors (the specific sector structure addressed to services, including caring
ones and activity on a smaller scale) is noticeable, and on the other hand, there is a co-relation between education and becoming an employer.
In this study, many general entrepreneurship conditions were defined, referring to both
men and women. As the research showed, various determinants to start new business are
of different importance for men and women, to a certain degree. The findings and opinions
on entrepreneurship determinants presented lead to forming hypotheses and questions,
which were verified in the process of conducted on a large scale empirical studies (quantitative and qualitative surveys) on entrepreneurship conditions, referring mainly to women.
72
44
Mizgajska H., The influence of education on motivations and barriers to women entrepreneurship based on ����������
Wielkopolska experience
73 PARP (2004) Demand for training services, Warsaw
Chapter II.
Objectives, hypotheses and verification
1. Research objectives and hypotheses
The main aim of this project was to broaden the knowledge on female entrepreneurship
in Poland in order to prepare recommendations about the support and limiting the barriers standing on the way to increase their professional activity by self-employment. On
the basis of the studied issues of female entrepreneurship and the findings about this phenomenon, presented in Chapter I, the following aims of empirical studies were formed:
‚‚ recognising current conditions of shaping and developing entrepreneurial attitudes
among Polish women;
‚‚ assessing the conditions of functioning by women running business activity in Polish
social-economical reality;
‚‚ identifying the barriers and stimuli to undertake business activity, and then influencing
the development of the company;
‚‚ recognising the situation in terms of possibilities of combining being self-employment
and family responsibilities.
There were five research hypotheses formed, the empirical verification of which led to the
fulfilment of the above aims74.
Hypothesis 1. Women undertaking their own business activity are motivated by various factors: for some of them it is a chance to develop professionally; for others - the only way
to earn a living.
Hypothesis 2. Actions taken to increase women’s motivations to establish their own companies can vitally contribute to the professional activation of women who are inactive in the
labour market, for example those taking care of young children.
Hypothesis 3. There are conditions and institutional barriers which affect the level of entrepreneurship among women rather than men (among others: determined technical infrastructure, education, having children, tax systems, access to institutional care for children,
professional career of other family members).
Hypothesis 4. There are conditions and social-cultural barriers in terms of starting business
activity, which women experience in particular, including psychological factors that are
a common reason to establish a company by men rather than women.
Hypothesis 5. Running one’s own business influences combining family responsibilities
and making a career.
2. Methodology of research
In order to verify the formed hypotheses, there were five studies conducted: two quantitative surveys (PAPI I i PAPI II), two qualitative surveys (IDI i FGI) and experimental study (EE)75.
74
As part of each hypothesis, there were detailed research questions asked, answers to which are in the findings
analysis presented in chapters III and IV.
75 Qualitative surveys and quantitative surveys were commissioned by PARP and conducted by IBC Group, and the
empirical study was conducted by LABSEE Robert Borowski.
45
The many-sided approach to the analysis of female entrepreneurship in Poland enabled
to compare the attitudes, motivations and barriers in starting and running own business
in terms of:
‚‚ gender – women vs men;
‚‚ entrepreneurship – entrepreneurs vs contract employees, the unemployed and inactive on the labour market;
‚‚ the stage of running a business – considering and preparing to take the step, functioning on the labour market and making the decision to cease running the business
activity.
2.1. Description of the methodology of empirical studies
Qualitative surveys were based on two surveys (questionnaires) conducted by means
of direct method (PAPI -Paper and Pencil Interviewing). The interviews were conducted in the
second quarter of 2011.
2.1.1. First study (PAPI I)
The aim of this study was to find out the opinions of women on conditions to start and run
a business activity by them, including their opinion on the expected difficulties and necessary solutions supporting the entrepreneurship. It was also to obtain information on the
co-relation between family life (especially caring responsibilities) and the conditions determining the decision to start business activity. A particular attention was paid to the discrepancies between female entrepreneurs and other entrepreneurs on the possibilities and barriers resulting from running one’s own business.
The operator of research test sample was the national database of households created by
GUS (Central Statistical Office).In the research there were 1357 respondents taking part –
women at the age of 25 – 44, so at the age of the greatest professional activity, at which
they have most family responsibilities connected with the upbringing of their children.
The main scope of the analysis of the findings was to present the opinions of female entrepreneurs compared to the opinions of women of a different status on the labour market.
There were three groups of women asked to participate in this research test:
‚‚ female entrepreneurs (10%) – 141 running a company, including 107 women running
one-person business activity;
‚‚ employees (64%) – 868 women employed on contract and civil-law agreement, who
have not run a business activity before;
‚‚ unemployed and inactive on the market (26%) – 347 unemployed and inactive women
(with a slight advantage of the unemployed in this group – 52%).
Chart 1 presents the structure of the surveyed group in the form of division into three
groups, and Table 1 shows the main characteristics of each of them.
Chart 1.
The structure of the surveyed group – PAPI I study.
unemployed and
inactive on the market
26 %
46
Source:
entrepreneurs 10%
employees 64%
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study, N=1357.
Table 1.
The structure of the surveyed population.
Entrepreneurs
N=141
Female
employees
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
N=347
Average age in years
32,7
37,3
35,2
Average work experience in years
5,8
11,5
6,2
Average number of persons in the household
2,9
3,2
3,55
Average number of children (as a whole)
0,9
1,13
1,36
Average number of children in the households where there are children
2,33
1,72
1,94
high
26,5
41,1
14,2
post high school
0,0
7,7
31,7
secondary vocational
36,8
19,0
17,8
basic secondary
18,8
25,2
4,4
basic vocation
17,9
7,0
23,8
primary and under-graduate primary
0,0
0,0
8,2
economy, administration,
laweducation:economy,
administration, law
22%
25%
13%
biological, mathematical,
technical studies, production and processing, agriculture, forestry, fishery,
veterinary
23%
20%
11%
arts and social studies,
pedagogy, art
22%
25%
22%
health protection, public
health and social security
0%
12%
0%
others, including basic
secondary
20%
19%
48%
central
25%
32%
28%
south
11%
15%
14%
east
14%
13%
13%
north-west
19%
16%
18%
south-west
6%
11%
10%
north
25%
14%
18%
do not study at present
79%
75%
78%
studies as a full-time student
0%
3%
11%
studies as an external
student
21%
14%
8%
attends courses
0%
8%
3%
The level
of education:
The profile
of education:
The region
of residence:
The educational
activity:
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
47
The subgroups differ slightly in terms of age: the oldest were the female employees and the
youngest the entrepreneurs. The employees usually had a higher level of education
and greater work experience than the other groups. The entrepreneurs had, on average,
less children, though when they decided to have children, the average number of them
was bigger than in other sub-groups.
The basic analysis of the findings from PAPI I study was to calculate the frequency of answers
to particular questions. In order to check the statistical importance of the differences
between key groups of respondents there were non-parameter tests carried out for independent tests – chi-square. The level of statistical significancy in the whole report
was maintained at the level of: p=0,05.
Moreover, two ligit models were assessed on the basis of which the strength of certain
factors having an influence on the probability of starting a business company was assessed,
while controlling the influence of other variables76.
Both regressions, conducted on individual data, checked the probability of being an entrepreneur in relation to the probability of having a different status on the market. In case
of model I, a different status was: contract employee, unemployment or inactivity on the
labour market, and in case of model II, it was a contract employee. The group of variables
describing the ligit model included:
‚‚ age in years (constant variable);
‚‚ work experience in years (constant variable);
‚‚ the region of residence, as a certain approximation of the situation on the local labour
market (the group of reference was the central region);
‚‚ whether the person is a student? 1 – yes (regardless of the kind of course), 0 – no;
‚‚ martial status: 1 – yes -- married or in a relationship, 0 – no -- single;
‚‚ the level of education: 1 – high or post high school, 0 – secondary or lower (reference
group);
‚‚ the kind of education: 0 (reference group) – economy and administration (including
management, marketing, finances, banking, insurance, accountancy and taxes, studies on management and administration) and law; 1 – biological, mathematical, technical studies, production and processing, agriculture, forestry, fishery, veterinary; 2 – arts
and social studies, pedagogy, art; 3 – health protection, public health, social security;
4 – others, including basic high school education;
(The referred kind of education of the group was the kind which seems to a large degree
provide the graduates with skills and knowledge which are significant and necessary
to establish, run and develop business activity).
‚‚ having children under the age of 7: 1 – yes, 0 – no;
‚‚ willingness to take risks: zero-one variable, 1 -- the respondent agrees with the statement `I like taking risks’ by marking `I definitely agree’ or `I agree’; 0 -- in other cases.
76
48
If the state the person is in the analysed moment in state Si, and the reference is being in the state Sj, then the corelation between having a company and different factors could be described in the form of ligit model (logistic
S
Si
h i = xTb
Sj
regression):
where Sj is the quotient of probability of being in the state Si (having a company) to the
probability of being in a different state, and x is the vector of observed independent variables (explanatory).
2.1.2. Second study (PAPI II)
The aim of this study was to recognise the determinants and barriers in running business
activity - both of psychological, demo-graphical, social-cultural and institutional character. The key objective was to indicate the factors equally influencing men and women,
and those typical of women.
The operator of the research test sample was ENIRO database (ENIRO database is an updated and address-detailed REGON database). In the PAPI II study, the questions were addressed
to persons running their own business activity, that is mainly male and female company
owners. Among 1802 respondents there were 806 women (45%) at the age of 18 – 59 i 996
men (55%) at the age 18 – 64, that is persons at the productive age. In this study, compared
to PAPI I study, the age range of the respondents was larger, which resulted from different
aims of the study. PAPI I study was focusing on persons at the age of 25 – 44, when there
is an increased number of duties connected with upbringing, whereas PAPI II study considered the full test of persons at the productive age, thanks to which it was possible to compare entrepreneurship determinants of persons at a different stage in their career. Table 2
presents main characterisations of the surveyed population in terms of gender.
49
Table 2.
The structure of the surveyed population.
Women
N=806
Men
N=996
Average age in years
44,2
43,8
Average work experience in years
17,3
17,3
Average number of persons in the household
3,3
3,4
Average number of children (as a whole)
1,44
1,46
Average number of children in the households where
there are children
1,87
1,91
high
27,9
31,6
post high school
16,6
15,5
secondary vocational
20,9
19,3
basic secondary
18,5
15,8
basic vocational
13,7
14,2
primary and post-graduate primary
2,3
3,6
economy, administration, law
22%
25%
biological, mathematical, technical
studies, production and processing, agriculture, fostery, fishery,
veterinary
23%
20%
arts and social studies, pedagogy,
art
22%
25%
health protection, public health,
social security
0%
12%
others, including basic secondary
20%
19%
central
20%
24%
south
14%
14%
east
17%
17%
north-west
20%
17%
south-west
13%
16%
north
16%
12%
do not study at present
84%
84%
studies as a full-time student
0%
0%
studies as an external student
5%
5%
attends courses
10%
10%
0 – 9 persons
87%
89%
10 – 49 persons
9%
7%
50 – 249 persons
4%
4%
The level
of education
The profile
of education:
The region
of residence:
Educational
activity:
Company size:
Source:
50
Independent study based on PAPI II study.
As presented in the Table 2, the surveyed populations of men and women showed similar characterisations. There were no significant differences in terms of both persons in the
household and the number of children, and in education, educational activity or the company size. The biggest number of companies (over 70% for both genders) were run in the
one person company form, and then – in the form of civil partnership, with open or limited
liability . There were no statistically significant differences in the law structure of the company in terms of the owner gender.
Analysing the results in terms of the activity field, according NACE classification, the biggest number of companies (31,3% of male companies and 26,2% run by women ) run their
activity in the `Other services activity’ sector. Then, it was `Wholesale and Retail Trade’ (15,2%
of men and 14,6% of women), `Building’ (9,4% of men and 9,1% of women) and `Financial
and Insurance Activity’ (8,1% of men and 9,2% of women). The fields in which there was
a significant advantage of men were `Transport and Storage Economy (4,6% compared
to 3,3% run by women) and Information and Communication’ (3,4% compared to 1,7%).
The fields where there was a significant advantage of female entrepreneurs were Education `(7,4% compared to 6,6% of men) and `Health Protection and Social Security’ (4,7%
of women and no men running a business in this field at the first place).
2.2. Qualitative surveys
In the project there were two qualitative surveys conducted – IDI - Individual In-Depth Interview and FGI - Focus Group Interview.
2.2.1. Individual In-Depth Interview (IDI)
The aim of Individual In-Depth Interview was to present the history of creating the company
and its functioning, considering the issue of motivations, stimuli and then barriers and the
issue of assessment of functioning of the conditions and the needs for development. In
individual interviews, conducted in reference to the programme by a team of researchers,
there were 20 women running business activity – owners or main co-owners of the company. The test group was chosen on purpose. There were, among others, data from societies and trade magazines, `snowball’ technique and experts’ opinions used.
There were women with great entrepreneurial potential chosen, that is women who had
been running the company for at least 2 years, successfully developing it (by investing,
extending the activity scope, increasing the production, introducing new services, expanding markets of supply, introducing new technologies in the production and employing
new workers) and fulfilled at least on of the following conditions:
‚‚ investing in upgrading professional skills of the employees and themselves
‚‚ cooperating with research-development units;
‚‚ being a member of associations/ trade societies;
‚‚ having investment-development plans of their companies.
Entrepreneurial potential of the respondents was verified at the first stage on the basis
of registration form and in the process of telephone pre-selection on the basis of auto declarations of the respondents. The criteria for the test were three factors: the company size,
the headquarters of the company (6 regions of Poland according to NTS1 statistical division) and the branch field, which is presented in Tables 3 and 4.
51
Table 3.
The division of IDI test according to NTS1 and the company size.
1–9
workers
10 – 49
workers
over 50
workers
Total
CENTRAL REGION
2
1
1
4
Łódzkie
1
1
0
2
Mazowieckie
1
0
1
2
SOUTH REGION
1
2
0
3
Małopolskie
1
1
0
2
Śląskie
0
1
0
1
EAST REGION
2
1
0
4
Lubelskie
0
1
0
1
Podkarpackie
1
0
0
1
Świętokrzyskie
0
1
0
1
Podlaskie
1
0
0
1
NORTH-WEST REGION
2
1
1
4
Wielkopolskie
1
0
1
2
Zachodniopomorskie
0
1
0
1
NTS1
Lubuskie
1
0
0
1
SOUTH-WEST REGION
2
1
0
2
Dolnośląskie
1
0
0
1
Opolskie
1
0
0
1
NORTH REGION
1
1
1
3
Kujawsko-pomorskie
0
1
0
1
Warmińsko-mazurskie
0
0
1
1
Pomorskie
1
0
0
1
10
7
3
20
In total N
Source:
Independent study on the basis of IDI study.
Table 4.
The division of IDI test according to NACE section.
NACE section
Industrial processing
Building
G Wholesale and retail trade; motor vehicles servicing, including
motorcycles
H Transport and storage
I Activity connected with accommodation and catering services
J Information and communication
K Finance and insurance activity
L Activity connected with real estate services
M Professional, scientific and technical activity
N Activity connected with administrative services and support
activity
P Education
Q Health care and social security
52
No of respondents77
C
2
F
1
77
9 out of 20 respondents ran an activity in the field of more than one NACE sections.
3
2
1
3
1
5
1
1
2
4
No of respondents77
NACE section
R
S
Activity connected with culture, entertainment and recreation
Other service activity
1
2
Total N
Source:
20
Independent study on the basis of IDI study.
Among 20 women participating in the interviews, 10 of them had children under 7 years
old, including 3 women with children under 3 years old.
2.2.2. Focus Group Interview (FGI)
The aim of this study was to clash the opinions of different persons on determinants, barriers and motivations of starting and running a company. The interviews were conducted
in four group of 8 – 9 persons. In total there were 35 participants. The variable differentiating
the respondents within the group was gender, and the variable differentiating the interviews was the status of the respondent defined as the level of engagement in running
a company, which is presented in Table 5.
Table 5.
Group
The categories of FGI respondent in terms of gender and status.
Women
Men
Total
FGI I Potential entrepreneurs, who already took steps
to start a business activity78
The category of respondents
5
4
9
FGI II
Novice entrepreneurs (running an activity for less
than 2 years)
4
5
9
FGI III
Persons experienced in business (running
the present company for at least 2 years)
4
4
8
FGI IV
Persons who ceased running a business activity
Total N
Source:
5
4
9
18
17
35
Independent study on the basis of FGI study.
Qualitative data of IDI and FGI were analysed on the basis of transcription and audio recordings given by an outside company conducting research and surveys.
2.3. Economic experiment (EE)79
An additional approach used in this project, enriching quantitative and qualitative surveys, is an economic experiment (EE – experimental economics). Its main aim was to study
the existence of differences in entrepreneurship attitudes of men and women, and indicate the reasons for these discrepancies (or lack of them). Moreover, a significant aspect
was also to compare the attitudes to running business activity by entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs and to point to key entrepreneurship determinants. Using the experimental
approach enabled to examine persons who are considering and preparing to start a business activity and thus, eliminate giving hypothetical answers. This study also made it possible to compare the declared decisions and the actual decisions made by the participants,
78
In this group there were persons who applied for subsidy for starting a company in the Regional Unemployment
Office or applied for subsidy for the activity as part of other projects of financing from public resources, including
European funds.
79 A detailed description of the experimental study is included in the attachment to the report.
53
thanks to which the obtained results are more reliable than the results of direct methods,
and the conducted analysis on the basis of this study better reflects the actual behaviour
of people.
The study was carried out in April, pursuant to specific software made especially for its purpose. The participants were persons at young age (20 - 30 years old), at which first decisions
about professional career and the form of employment are made. Moreover, the test was
restricted to persons with the greatest professional potential, for whom there is the greatest
chance of achieving success in running business activity – graduates and students of last
years from economic and managerial departments of universities and schools of higher
education. Thanks to this, the surveyed were divided into similar social groups and did not
differ in a significant way in terms of invisible, specific features. In the research there were
160 participants altogether, recruited mainly among Academic Business Incubators members, the members of AIESEC, the students of Economic Studies Department and Management Department of Warsaw University and the students of Warsaw School of Economics.
The study was conducted in 10 groups of sixteen persons creating independent experimental sessions. In each session there were persons belonging to four categories: (i) female
entrepreneurs (KP), (ii) male entrepreneurs (MP), (iii) female non-entrepreneurs (KNP), (iv)
male non-entrepreneurs (MNP)80.
The course of each session was the following:
(i) the participants got familiar with the study instructions in a paper form;
(ii) next, the surveyed filled out the form with questions about gender and (not) being
an entrepreneur, which enabled to put them in the appropriate category;
(iii) after filling out the form there came the basic part of the experiment consisting of 3 trial
rounds and 24 paid rounds. In each round the participants chose the form of undertaken employment: contract work or self-employment. The separate round differ from one
another by two experimental variables: the market size (a number of successful companies) and the way of creating a ranking list (the way of ranking the businesses) at random (LOS) or based on the Knowledge on Entrepreneurship Test results (TEST)81.
(iv) after the completion of the basic part, the participants were to solve the Knowledge
on Entrepreneurship Test consisting of 11 multiple-choice questions ( only one answer
was correct);
(v) eventually, the participants answered six short survey questions on personality features,
eg. preferences, trust, emotions and attitude to taking risks.
In accordance with the methodology of experimental studies binding in the economics,
the surveyed were financially awarded, and the amount of the prize depended on the
obtained result. In order to motivate the participants to make thought-out decisions, there
was a specialised system of rewards prepared increasing the psychological realism of the
study. The participants received payment for work in one of the selected rounds, regardless of the chosen form of employment. The payment for contract work was 0 PLN, and for
the self-employed work it could be both positive and negative. It depended on the market
80
54
In the category of entrepreneurs there were the participants running or planning to start a business activity,
or running courses, trainings and other form of business activity. The others were included in the category of nonentrepreneurs.
81 The importance of experimental variables was explained below.
size and the position which the company takes in the rankings, which is presented in the
table below.
Table 6.
Payment received by self-employed participants. (PLN = PLN)
Payment for self-employed work
The market size
Ranking list
position
2
4
6
8
1
67 zł
40 zł
29 zł
22 zł
2
33 zł
30 zł
24 zł
19 zł
3
-20 zł
20 zł
19 zł
17 zł
4
-20 zł
10 zł
14 zł
14 zł
5
-20 zł
-20 zł
9 zł
11 zł
6
-20 zł
-20 zł
5 zł
8 zł
7
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
6 zł
8
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
3 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
others
Source:
Independent study on the basis of EE study
Payment for self-employed work depended on two experimental variables – the market size
and the way of creating the ranking list of businesses. Depending on the round, the market
size was : 2, 4, 6 or 8. The market size was the number of companies which would survive
on the market. If the number of companies functioning on the market was higher in a particular round than the market size, then some companies would have to go bankrupt,
which would mean that their owners made a loss. Whether some companies made a loss
or a profit depended on the position in the ranking. The higher the position of the participant on the list, the better the condition of their company and ,what is more, the higher
payment. The lower position meant the lower payment. The companies ranked lower than
the marker size went bankrupt, making a loss of 20PLN. The position on the ranking list
depended on the way of creating it, that is on the second experimental variable.
Depending on the round, the ranking list was created: at random (LOS), that is, every company had equal chances and the obtained result was random to a great degree; or based
on the results of The Knowledge on Entrepreneurship Test (TEST) – in this case the financial result of the company depended on the knowledge, skills and experience of its owner,
that is on the result the participant scored in the test. In rounds of TEST type the randomness was lower, and the received payment depended mainly on the participants’ individual
decisions. Introducing two extremely different ways of creating the ranking list was aimed
at checking the behaviours of the surveyed, depending on the level of risk involved in starting business activity82.
Apart from the main assignment, the participants were awarded additionally for: predicting the number of participants deciding to start business activity in a separate round (0,5
82�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The method used in the conducted experimental study is rather complicated, which may lead to misunderstand-
ings of its short description included in the report. In order to get familiar with the procedures applied here, refer
to the attachment of this report including the experimental study report. To make the conclusions accurate it is
of the greatest importance that the surveyed understand its rules. It was checked by means of specialist statistical
tests, eg. the surveyed almost correctly predicted the number of participants form the 16-person group, which
in a particular round decided to start a business activity, so they were able to assess the level of competitiveness
on the market and on this basis they made the best decision for them.
55
PLN per every accurate prediction), The Knowledge on Entrepreneurship Test (0,5 PLN for
every correct answer) and taking part in the study (20 PLN). The average salary was 28 PLN
(the minimum salary was 3 PLN, and the maximum was 95 PLN). The payment was received
directly on the completion of the experiment.
The data obtained in the experimental study were analysed statistically in order to examine
the differences in decision making by particular participants and to indicate entrepreneurship determinants. To achieve this, there were non-parameter tests conducted for dependable variables (Wilcoxon test and Signs test) and for independable variables (U Mann-Whitney test and Kołmogorow-Smirnow test). The level of statistical significance in the whole
report was accepted at the level of p=0,05. Moreover, there was a comprehensive model
of regression prepared. The ligit model with random effects was estimated (random-effects
logistic regression), in which the explanatory variable was the form of work undertaken by
the participants. The data had a panel structure – 24 observations for each of 160 participants. The total number of observations was 3,840. Below, there is a description of particular variables which were included in the model.
Work
The form of employment: 0 – contract, 1 – self-employed
Type
Experimental variable defining the way of creating the ranking list in the particular round: 0 – random, 1– test
The market size
Experimental variable the market size in the particular round: 2, 4, 6, or 8
Excess
The difference between the predicted number of participants deciding
on self-employment in a particular round apart from us and the size market
Entrepreneurship Is the participant entrepreneurial?
0: I run or plan my own business activity or I run courses, trainings or other
forms of business activity
1: I do not run any form of business activity
56
Gender
The gender of the respondent: 0 – woman, 1 – man
Test
The number of correct answers in the test
Pref_1 (L bonus)
Imagine you receive payment of 3000 PLN. Which will you choose?
0: Safe bonus of 1000 PLN
1: Lottery, with bonus of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or bonus of 2000 PLN (50%
of chances)
Pref_2 (L loss)
Imagine you receive payment of 3000 PLN Which will you choose?
0: Safe loss of 1000 PLN
1: Lottery, with loss of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or with loss of 2000 PLN (50%
of chances)
Risk *
What is your attitude to taking risks and gambling?
0: I like taking even big risks
1: I like taking only small risks, I avoid big risks
2: I do not thing about the risk when making a decision
3: I do not rather take risks
4: I definitely avoid risky situations
5: It is difficult to say
Trust *
Do you generally speaking think that people should be trusted, or you should
be careful when dealing with people?
0: I can almost always trust people
1: Generally, people can be trusted
2: Generally, you should be careful when dealing with people
3 You should almost always be careful when dealing with people
4: It is difficult to say
Emotions *
How do you make decisions?
0: I usually make spontaneous decisions, driven by emotions
1: I equally often make spontaneous and thought-out decisions
2 I usually contemplate before making a decision
3: It is difficult to say
* As the variables: Risk, Trust and Emotions cannot be presented in the form of a scale, so they were
analysed as qualitative variables, where the basis value was 0.
The conducted qualitative, quantitative surveys and experimental studies enabled to verify the research hypotheses, put forward earlier, treating the issue of female entrepreneurship in Poland from many sides. Table 7 presents a general classification of theses research
hypotheses and the studies, on the basis of which they were verified in chapters III and IV.
Table 7.
Study
Empirical studies and the hypotheses verified by them.
Research
hypothesis
H1
H2
H3
H4
H5
PAPI I X
X
X
X
X
PAPI II
X
X
X
X
IDI
X
X
X
X
FGI
X
X
X
X
EE
X
Source:
X
X
Independent study.
The particular studies differed from one another by not only the research method, but
also the choice of the test in reference to gender and running a business activity, which
is shown in Table 8.
Table 8.
Empirical studies and the hypotheses verified by them.
Women
Men
PAPI II
IDI
FGI
Entrepreneurs
PAPI I
EE
Non-entrepreneurs
Source:
Independent study.
PAPI I study enabled to compare the attitudes to running a business activity by female
entrepreneurs and female non-entrepreneurs. PAPI II and FGI studies enabled to compare
female and male entrepreneurs. IDI study was aimed to broaden the knowledge on female
entrepreneurship, and on the basis of the economic experiment (EE) it was possible to clash
57
all four groups differing from one another by gender and the form of employment. The
studies designed in this way enabled to define which actions of the state (ie. economic
policy) affect equally both genders, and which are mainly connected with female entrepreneurship. In quantitative and qualitative surveys an emphasis was put on the solutions
which enable women to combine professional activity and family responsibilities in Polish
society, which puts more burden on women.
58
Chapter III.
Barriers and female entrepreneurship determinants
in Poland. Empirical studies findings83
1. The motivation of undertaking business activity
From the analysis of the current research on the motivations of undertaking business activity, and at the same time the inner factors and reasons for which people decide to start
a company (compared to chapter I, point 1.1.) it appears that women more often than men
start their own business as a result of lack of possibility and not the urge to take advantage
of the situation, make the dreams come true or take risks. Among the reasons for undertaking self-employment by women, identified in the previous studies, there are such factors as
the aspiration for independence, the urge to gain higher income, financial independence,
the possibility of professional development, negative experiences of contract work, prevailing conditions on the labour market, lack of other employment possibilities.
To verify the discussed factors, and to check to what degree women want to be company
owners and to what degree they have to as there is no other alternative for them, the following hypothesis was formed: Motivations of women undertaking business activity
are varied: some of them they start a company because they want to – perceiving
it as an opportunity to develop professionally, some – as a result of lack of possibility
in the form of contract work. To verify this hypothesis, the following research questions
were posed:
1. What factors make women want to run business activity, perceiving it as a lifetime
chance and the possibility to use prevailing circumstances (pull factors)?What is the
scale of this phenomenon?
2. What factors make women run a business activity as a result of lack of possibility of contract work (push factors)? What is the scale of this phenomenon?
3. To what degree do such factors as the need to improve the financial situation decide
to undertake business activity by women?
4. What are the paths of the flow of women into self-employment market, that is what was
their market status before starting a business activity?
In the literature referred to during the analysis of desk research, one of the conclusions was
the low tendency to undertake business actions by inactive women. Thus, it became important to define the reason for lack of interest in this form of business activity and find ways
to activate inactive women and meet the needs of those of them who seek independence,
self-reliance and professional development. In the process of examining the study, another hypothesis was put forward: Actions directed to increase the motivation of women
to start business activity may significantly contribute to professional activisation
of inactive women, including women bringing up small children. To verify this hypothesis, the following questions were posed:
1. What are the reasons for lack of interest in business activity by inactive women and entering the market for the first time?
83
The level of tatistical significance in the whole report is at the level of p=0,05.
59
2. How to encourage women aspiring to professional development, independence
and self-reliance to start and run a company?
Below there is an attempt presented to answer the aforementioned questions by means
of an analysis of the obtained results from qualitative and quantitative surveys.
1.1. Factors encouraging women to start their own companies (pull factors)
The analysis of the answers to the question on motivations to undertake business activity addressed to male and female entrepreneurs, in the study including male and female
entrepreneurs (PAPI II), does not show significant discrepancies in answers given by men
and women.
Among pull factors, both men and women most often pointed to the urge for using the prevailing circumstances (21,5%) – this factor was equally important to the same rate of male
and female entrepreneurs. The next position among pull factors was taken by the aspiration for independence and self-reliance in making decisions about their fate (14,3% – men,
17,3 % – women). For 11% of female and 14% of male entrepreneurs running a business
activity provides an opportunity to develop professionally and choose the employment
form. The reasons for starting business activity are presented in the Chart 1.
Chart 1.
What made you undertake business activity?
8,2
8,9
Others
6,1
7,6
Unemployment threat, greater confidence…
Possibility of professional development...
men
11,4
14,3
14,3
Aspiration for independence, self-reliance …
2
2,5
Necessity to take over family business
Need to improve financial situation. ....
10,1
13,2
19,4
17,7
21,4
21,5
Lack of alternative in the form of contracted work
Urge to use prevailing circumstances …
0
60
17,7
3,1
2,5
Lack of satisfaction with contracted work...
Source:
women
5
10
15
20
25
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study. Female and male entrepreneurs, F= 806,
M= 996.
The question about the reasons for starting own business activity was also asked to female
entrepreneurs as part of the study including women of different professional status (PAPI I).
Among the factors encouraging female entrepreneurs to start business activity, on the one
hand, there is the aspiration for independence and self-reliance in making decisions about
their own fate (23%), and on the other hand, there are financial factors – the urge to gain
higher income and financial independence (11%). To the same degree as independence,
women perceive running their company as a lifetime chance. (23%). The factors mentioned
by female entrepreneurs as part of the study including women of different professional status (PAPI I) are presented in Chart 2.
the rate of answers
Chart 2. What made you start business activity? (Max. two answers).
50%
45%
40%
35%
30%
45%
23%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
11%
T he need to
improve financial
situation
Source:
23%
T he
aspiration
for
independence
and selfreliance
T he need to use
prevailing
circumstances
11%
T he necessity to take T he urge for higher
over family business
income and
financial
independence
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study. Female entrepreneurs, N = 141.
The similar reasons are most often given by the respondents of the qualitative survey.
Among numerous answers of the respondents from individual in-depth interviews (IDI),
the factor of independence and self-reliance as the main reason for starting business activity was indicated by the following:
„I just wanted to be independent. I didn’t want to work for anybody else. It was also my initiative, my ideas and my willingness to take actions”
(a woman running a company since 1994,
Activity connected with real estate services’ section, two children).
These answers indicate a strong urge to take responsibility by women for their professional
life and their well-being, which results from a strong sense of individuality. Self-employment is a good solution for them, which compared to contract work makes it possible for
them to fulfil their dreams.
At the same time, the factor which attracted women to starting a business was the prevailing circumstances, which future company owners were able to use successfully. These
encouraging factors were for example:
‚‚ the change of economic conditions favouring entrepreneurship development
and growth:
„Change of jobs, new circumstances, 1993 – 1994 , that is general changes on the labour
market, new companies were established, old companies either changed the character
of their activity or went bankrupt, and in fact my friend persuaded me to try in the insurance
field, and that’ s how it started,”
(a woman running a company since 1996, in `Education’ section, one child);
‚‚
filling the market niche in a particular section, existing on the surrounding market:
„there was no such activity on the market in my region, and the studies I graduated from prepared me to start business activity exclusively in the form I run at present”
(a woman running a company since 2006, in `Professional,
scientific and technical activity’);
61
‚‚
taking advantage of the `not to be refused’ proposal which somebody made:
„At a certain moment there appeared a man and said: you know, Alicja, I may even put my
office at your disposal, help me run my company. So that’s how I started my adventure with
business architecture, that is interior design of offices”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in `Wholesale and retail trade’ section, two children);
‚‚
using the experience gained at contract work in the situation when further employment
is insecure. Numerous times, self-employment, according to female entrepreneurs who
took part in the study, is the only way to combine professional duties and family responsibilities, as they find here more flexibility and possibility to organise their own time. It
provides mothers with a chance to fulfil professional objectives and at the same time
be a good mother and wife:
„until my first child was 4 years old I worked for somebody doing big projects, I did amazing
things, but then I didn’t find it interesting any more that I had to be outside the home for 18
hours, that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted to have another child and thought that there are
many persons like me, who have children, want to work and it must be possible to combine
it. So I started a company where mostly women work and we’re doing fine”
(experienced entrepreneurs - a woman);
A common reason for starting a company is to make the dreams of running a business
come true. Both male and female entrepreneurs point to this motivation. It is manifested by
the urge to possess something that is your own or the urge to do what you want:
„since I was a child I have always dreamt about having my own company”
(a woman running a company since 2008,’Other services activity’ section);
„When I graduated, I found a nice job, I had an OK boss, and I was satisfied with my job
and they were satisfied with me, but I quit everything and wanted to fulfil my dream. Tourism
is what I love. I can talk about it for hours, that’s why I chose it”
(FGI – a novice female entrepreneur).
In the answers given by male and female entrepreneurs, among the pull factors to run
a company, there were the willingness to realise their ideas, professional plans, which in the
company where they worked were not appreciated. According to female respondents
of the qualitative survey ,self-employment, to a larger degree than contract work, gives
an opportunity to develop professionally:
„It was mostly the urge to develop my skills and gain and broaden my knowledge about
what I learnt during my studies at the university, and most importantly learn the practical
skills of my profession and how to use them effectively. And self-employment gives definitely
such a chance”
(a woman running a business synced 2006,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section).
62
Sometimes the choice of work in the form of self-employment is automatically made when
the person is brought up in an entrepreneur’s family. Following the family tradition is a natural step (choice vs necessity) between educational stage and professional life. Both men
and women, participating in the qualitative surveys, point to this motivation:
„my Dad ran a business similar to mine, and seeing what he did and how he did it, as he was
in a similar business field, it encouraged me and I started my own company, somehow following in my father’s footsteps”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Health protection and social security’ section, three children);
„I was brought up among private initiative, so to speak, as my parents for years had been
running a dressmaker’s shop and after finishing school and doing ma GCSEs they needed
spare hands, so to speak, so I helped them and it turned out to be my way of professional life
as well”
(the experienced entrepreneurs - a man).
1.2. Factors encouraging women to start business activity
(push factors)
Among factors which encourage women to start business activity are also the so-called
push factors. According to male and female entrepreneurs, the most important is lack
of alternative in the form of contract work – 18% of women and 20% of men pointed to this
motivation. The other factors, indicated by entrepreneurs of both genders to an equal
degree, were: the necessity of taking over the family business (3%), lack of satisfaction with
contract work (2%) (compared to Chart 1, among female and male entrepreneurs, PAPI II
study).
On the other hand, in the quantitative survey addressed to female entrepreneurs of different professional status (PAPI I), among the push factors was only the necessity of taking
over the family business mentioned (11%), and the rate of them is higher than in the study
among male and female entrepreneurs (PAPI II) (compared to Chart 2, PAPI I study).
Attention is also paid to push factors by women in the qualitative studies, although these
are uncommon cases. One of the women admits that her own skills and experience were
crucial for her husband’s company to start and thrive. She entered the business field when
she became co-owner of the family business:
„my husband was very persuasive, so there was no other choice , actually; my husband
is competent at what he does, though he knew very well that I had the practical knowledge
on accountancy and bookkeeping and running a company, and I would do well”
(a woman running a company since 2005, in `Building’ section, two children).
Sometimes undertaking a business activity was the only way to support the husband’s
company. The support was so necessary that women were willing to resign from an attractive form of employment:
„my husband ran a company before, which developed very fast and extensively, and we had
to make a decision that I would have to resign from my current position and lend a hand
to my husband so that the company would work properly and thrive”
(a woman running a company since 2000, in `Industrial processing’ section).
In other case starting business activity was the only possibility of improving the present situation (family and financial). Difficulties with finding contract work, lack of appropriate payment options or the necessity to work at inflexible hours as a result of family duties made
it impossible for the respondents to find other forms of employment:
„this [family situation] was a good motivation factor, because actually having two small girls
63
at home I couldn’t take a regular job from nine to five. My husband also couldn’t find work.
So, as we had some savings and family support, we made the decision and we opened our
own shop”
(a woman running a company since 1993, in `Wholesale and retail trade).
It appears that the same factor, ie, having small children, has an influence in various contexts. On the one hand, women decide more often to start a business as they perceive it as
the possibility of having a flexible job (pull factor), and on the other hand, family responsibilities and burdens make it difficult for women to combine professional career and family
duties (push factor).
Sometimes, to start their business women were pushed by their dissatisfaction with
the atmosphere at the contract work, bad management hindering `healthy’ existence
of the family and personal development. The sense of bad work organisation, the necessity to work in rigid working hours was also the reason why the respondents resigned from
the contract work and chose self-employment which, according to them, enables to overcome these difficulties:
„I wanted to do it because I simply couldn’t stand starting my work at 8, though there was
nothing to do. I had to pretend that I was working till 4 p.m.; sometimes it was very hectic,
sometime not, however, I had to work from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. I couldn’t stand that I had to fight
for every day off and that was so frustrating, such slavery and not being able to decide when
and how I wanted to spend my free time. Freedom is my greatest life value and I felt I don’t
have it any more”
(FGI, novice entrepreneurs – a woman).
1.3. Financial situation as the motivation to start business
activity
The improvement of the financial situation, being the factor to start a business activity,
was pointed to by more men (11%) than women (8%) running their companies, according
to a study conducted among female and male entrepreneurs – compared to Chart 1, and it
is the fourth consecutive factor influencing the decision to start one’s own business, crucial
to both genders.
On the other hand, in case of female entrepreneurs, according to a study conducted among
women of different professional status (PAPI I), it is most often mentioned as the factor
which motivates women to become self-employed – 45% of women points to it (Chart 2).
Starting their own companies was a chance for women to obtain higher income tin comparison to contract work, which is reflected in their opinions:
„well, low salary, mostly mine, and my husband, who didn’t work at the time, so I had to do
something to support me, my husband and our child who was on the way”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Health care and social security’ section, 10 employees, three children).
64
Sometimes becoming self-employed appeared to be the only form of employment, thus
the only source of income:
„what motivated me most was when my husband lost his job. We had small children, so we
needed money () I had no other choice but become self-employed”
(a woman running a company since 1993, in `Coal mining and mining’ section).
The factor to start business activity as a way to improve the financial situation appeared
in the answers of most respondents in qualitative surveys, which was accurately summarised by one of the participants of the focus group interviews (FGI):
„working for 8, 12, 14 hours a day we didn’t receive appropriate salary. So, working on your
own we are able to get higher income, which would reflect the situation of earning more
and working less”
(experienced entrepreneurs – a woman).
The intentions of financial independence and improving the financial situation became
the reality, as over half (55%) of female entrepreneurs participating in the quantitative survey carried out among women of different professional status (PAPI I) claim that the income
of their companies covers the whole or most of their family budget. The answers of women
as part of The qualitative surveys confirm these observations:
„I realised very quickly that I am the only breadwinner in the family, and breastfeeding my
child, without maternity leave at all, without any help, I remained the breadwinner of the
family”
(a woman running a company since 1996
in ‘Information and communication’ section, 20 employees).
According to the analysis of the quantitative surveys among male and female entrepreneurs (PAPI II) and of the answers given in the qualitative surveys, women less often than
men choose self-employment as the only alternative. The answer rates of men and women
are almost identical. Women are able to use the prevailing circumstances and opportunities which they meet on their professional way, realising the advantages of being your own
boss, and they are aware of the risk involved in running business activity:
„a regular job was better than a risky business activity”
(a woman running a company in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section).
It is also reflected in the experimental study. Comparing the decisions made by entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, there is a definitely higher frequency of choosing selfemployment by the participants of the first group (the average was respectively 66,21%
and 49,63%). The conducted U Mann-Whitney test confirmed the statistical gravity of existing differences84. The choices of the participants in the laboratory environment confirmed
their actual decisions, which was not settled a priori. This outcome indicates that the selfemployed are the entrepreneurs of their own accord, and not due to lack of other alternative – they prefer self-employment and the consequences connected with it rather than
the contract work.
The persons who do not intend to start business activity opt for safe and secure salary,
though – even at the expense of its lower amount, which they confirmed when choosing the contract work most often in the study. The surveyed had clearly shaped preferences as for the employment form, and the attempts to change them, through support
programmes directed to encouraging people to start business activity, may not bring
the expected result.
84
Z=3,084; p=0,002.
65
In this study there also were the decisions about the employment form compared in reference to gender. The experiment results pointed to the bigger number of women undertaking business activity than men (on average, 60,1% of women compared to 53,49% of men).
The conducted U Mann-Whitney test indicated the statistical non-gravity of the observed
differences85. In spite of this, the obtained result is surprising as it is not with accordance
with the actual market reality. In reality, a definitely lower rate of women than men choose
self-employment. The obtained result leads to the conclusion that in the surveyed population (young people, with high professional potential – students and graduates of economic
and managerial departments of the best Polish universities and schools of higher education) there was no difference in terms of gender in attitudes to taking risks connected with
insecurity of income. Women equally often, maybe even more often than men, chose selfemployment and the instability and insecurity of income connected with it.
One should ponder the reason why there is a difference between the experimental study
results and the market reality. In the study both men and women behaved in a similar way
and made almost identical decisions. The result may point to the fact that the lower number of female businesses does not result from their conscious choices, but from greater
than for men restrictions (eg. social or family), which they come across on their professional
path in the real world, and which did not appear in the experiment. This thesis is confirmed
by the results of qualitative and quantitative surveys.
What differentiates the motivations of men from those of women is the urge to support
the activity of their partner (husband), which was reflected in several answers given by
female entrepreneurs. These answers were mainly given in individual interviews, in which
only women took part, and this reason is not mentioned in any of the group interviews,
both by men and women.
The other difference is the possibility to combine professional duties and family responsibilities, which women seek in running a business. This difference seems to be obvious as
it is the woman who is responsible for taking care of small children. According to qualitative
and quantitative surveys among women of different professional status, over 40% of female
entrepreneurs, unemployed and inactive on the market, and almost 40% of female contract
employees do all or most of household duties themselves. Men, if they mention the work
time factor as the reason for starting a company, refer to it only in the context of an appropriate salary for the working hours.
1.4. The paths of female flow into self-employment
Women and men running business activity were asked (PAPI II study among female
and male entrepreneurs) about their professional status before undertaking the business activity. It appears that the significant majority of female entrepreneurs (68%) was
employed earlier as contract workers. The same refers to male entrepreneurs (67%). The
second , as for the size, was the group of people for whom starting business activity was
the way to get out of unemployment (17% of both genders). Almost one out of ten companies was established when their owners were inactive on the market due to the fact they
were studying – Chart 3.
66
85
Z=1,403; p=0,161.
Chart 3.
The status on the market before starting a business activity, in terms of gender.
80%
68% 67%
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
2% 3%
a refusal to
the question
2% 2%
inactive,
other reason
inactive ,
I studied/learnt
unemployed not
registered in
Unemployment
Office
women
Source:
8% 9%
4% 4%
unemployed
registered in
Unemployment
Office
part-time
contracted
employee
0%
4% 4%
full-time
contracted
employee
10%
17% 17%
6% 6%
I had a different
company
20%
men
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study, Female and male entrepreneurs: N= 806
of women and 996 of men. The differences were statistically not important, p<0,05.
Similar results are provided by the quantitative survey, whose respondents were women
of different professional status (PAPI I) (Chart 4).
Chart 4.
Female entrepreneurs in terms of their professional status before starting a business activity.
33%
the rate of answers
35%
30%
23%
25%
23%
20%
15%
11%
11%
10%
5%
0%
Full-time contracted
employee
Source:
Part-time contracted Unemployed registered
in the Employment
employee
Office
Unemployed NOT
registeredin the
Employment Office
No answer
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study. Female entrepreneurs: N= 141.
Over half of female entrepreneurs worked earlier as contract workers (full-time or part-time),
and for 22% of women stating business activity was a chance to stop being unemployed .
The analysis of the answers given by female entrepreneurs as part of qualitative surveys
confirms the above results and at the same time provides in-depth information on the circumstances of undertaking business activity in terms of resigning from contract work.
The acquired experience on the market appears to be crucial at the moment of starting
a career as a businesswoman. It is confirmed by women who while working for somebody
also acquired the necessary skills, experience, contacts, which are invaluable now when
they are their own bosses:
„I worked for a year and a half, within a few months I got a professional license, so I simply started my own business activity. These were the beginnings, I thought I knew so much,
I could do so much (…), as I was a guide at the time , so I knew very well the area, the city,
in terms of urban planning and the origins of the place . On the other hand, the knowledge
on the area [made it possible for me ] to find my place in it easily. I learnt the ropes at the
building school, as the hydraulic engineering included a major part of the general building
construction, so it is a great basis for the real estate market.”
(a woman running a company since 2003,
in ‘Activity connected with real estate services’ sections).
67
These observations are confirmed by male entrepreneurs as well, who gained valuable
experience and contacts from contract work, which enable them to run a successful business:
„I decided to resign and use my contacts and connections as a sales representative, and I will
be more successful than in the company where I worked.
(experienced entrepreneurs – a man).
Often, the business activity which the respondents run currently means the same responsibilities and tasks they had when working as contract workers:
„I worked in a company connected with the field of tourism, only more specialised branch, ie.
qualified tourism with the emphasis on ocean sailing. Actually, I chose this field when I started my own company”
(novice entrepreneurs – a man).
Sometimes women admit that they ran business activity while being employed full-time
as the security for a possible failure in business or they simply wanted to use the workers’
entitlements:
„that was a continuation of my husband’s work, earlier he ran this kind of business activity,
closed it and we joined forces to run mine, as I still worked so certain ZUS issues were regulated by my employer… that was the situation when I didn’t have to pay the insurance fees
in the full range, and additionally I could run my own business activity”.
(a woman running a company since 1994, in ‘Building’ section,
12 employees, two children).
The second biggest, in terms of size, was the group of the unemployed, for whom starting a business activity was to stop being unemployed. The circumstances of establishing
a company in this case were varied. Some respondents admitted that they could not find
a job at their position, which would suit their qualifications and interests, others came form
being unemployed to self-employed as a result of random events, eg. somebody’s death:
„generally I didn’t work for a long time. I helped my husband, who is a businessman and has
his own company, and a year ago our friend, who had an accountancy agency, died and one
of the persons working there was looking for a business partner and I made up my mind,
and so we developed that business activity”
(novice entrepreneurs – a woman).
Sometimes, as is confirmed by quantitative surveys, the entrepreneurial skills of the respondents were developed during their studies. A similar rate of women and men (8% of women
and 9% of men)86 started their companies while being at school or university. This issue
is developed by female entrepreneurs in individual interviews. In one case it was the need
for further development, in the other it was a way to gain money to continue the studies:
„I started my first company when I was 19. It was „Financial stops”, I didn’t have money
to study and that was the first thing. That was a catering company, when I started it, it was
1991 and people had a lot of money so you could earn a lot”
(a woman running a company since 2005, in ‘Building’ section, 12 employees).
As the studies show, the professional status in the market before starting a business activity has in a way an influence on whether we want to work on one’s own. Most of the
68
86
The gravity difference is not statistically important, p<0,05.
respondents started their companies after experiences in contract employment. There
is a lack of significant differences between men and women – almost an identical rate
of entrepreneurs of both genders worked as contract workers before starting their business
activity. Contract work enables to get familiar with the market, get valuable contacts which
are a crucial base when starting a company. Apart from that, it involves less risk connected
with, eg. the instability of income. On the other hand, the conditions of contract work connected with working under somebody’s supervision and adapting to the rules in the workplace encourage persons to try and start a business activity. In other case, the impossibility of finding a job, ie. the condition of being unemployed, is an impulse to start working
on one’s own. Not all unemployed people, when they cannot find a job, decide to take such
a step. Thus, the questions arises, Why do unemployed women take no interest in starting
a business activity? The attempt to answer it is presented below.
1.5. Reasons for lack of interest in a business activity
More or less, one out of three unemployed, inactive or working a contract employee
women does not take starting a business activity in the next 5 years into consideration.
However, as many as 63% of the respondents working as contract employees and 51%
of the inactive or unemployed take that possibility into account (others marked the answer
‘It’s difficult to say’). Additionally, 64% of the same group of employees and 58% of the inactive and unemployed considered starting a business activity in the past. According to the
respondents’ declarations, a big group of women may be considered to be potential entrepreneurs.
Chart 5.
Have you ever considered starting business activity?
70%
60%
50%
40%
30%
20%
10%
0%
no
Employed women
Source:
yes
difficult to say
Unemployed and inactive
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I survey. Employed women N= 868. Unemployed
and inactive in the market N= 347.
To verify why some of these women did not make the decision to run a business activity,
we asked unemployed, inactive and working as contract workers women what stops them
from becoming self-employed.
69
Both for unemployed and inactive, and contract employees the greatest barrier is lack
of appropriate financial capital (respectively: 55% and 58%).
the rate of answers
The second most important factor mentioned by women in both groups was administrative procedures and too much bureaucracy involved in starting and running a business
activity. It could be observed that more contract employees pointed to the procedures as
60%
the factor
preventing them form starting a business (32%) compared to the unemployed
55%
50%
and inactive
in the market (19%).
40%
Another obstacle for the contract employees was the fear of failure, going bankrupt (24%),
30%
and in the case of the unemployed it was lack of ideas about what activity they would run
19%
17%
20%
(17%). The data is presented in Charts16%
6 and 7.
9%
40%
6%
too many
work burdens
family/ friends
discouraged me
from starting
a business
inflexible work
hours
too many
work duties
work duties
and family
16%
difficulties in
17%
combining
55%
fear of failure
going
bankrupt
the rate of answers
50%
lack of ideas ,
about what activity
I would like
to run
60%
lack of
appropriate
financial
capital
0%
8%
3%
3%
What prevented you from starting a business activity? Women unemployed
and inactive
in the market.
administrative
procedures
too much
bureaucracy
10%
Chart 6.
30%
19%
20%
9%
10%
8%
6%
3%
3%
too many
work burdens
family/ friends
discouraged me
from starting
a business
inflexible work
hours
too many
work duties
work duties
and family
difficulties in
combining
fear of failure
going
bankrupt
lack of ideas ,
about what activity
I would like
to run
administrative
procedures
too much
bureaucracy
lack of
appropriate
financial
capital
0%
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study; Unemployed and inactive in the market
women: N = 347.
Chart 7.
What prevented you from starting business activity? Contract female employees.
70%
58%
50%
40%
32%
30%
24%
20%
16%
8%
10%
6%
5%
3%
2%
40%
Source:
30%
inflexible work
hours
difficulties in
combining
family and
work responsibilities
I don’t know
too many
work duties
fear of failure
going bankrupt
2%
Independent
study on the basis of PAPI I study; unemployed and inactive in the market
32%
women: N = 868.24%
20%
16%
family/ Friends
discouraged me
from starting
a business
inflexible work
hours
difficulties in
combining
family and
work responsibilities
I don’t know
too many
work duties
unwillingness to
take
responsibility
lack of ideas about
what activity
I would like
to run
fear of failure
going bankrupt
administrative y
procedures
too much
bureaucracy
The10%group of factors which prevent the 8%
unemployed
and inactive and women work6%
5%
3%
2%
2%
ing0%as contract employees from starting a business activity, may be additionally supplemented by the issue of the disadvantages of self-employment. Among the greatest drawbacks of having a company by female non-entrepreneurs is the necessity to work more
than 8 hours a day (unemployed and inactive - 22% and contract employees - 22%), lack
of regular and stable income, especially at the beginning (unemployed and inactive - 22%
and contract employees - 21%), as well as the necessity to deal with the problems in all
lack of appropriate
financial capital
70
unwillingness to
take
responsibility
50%
58%
lack of ideas about
what activity
I would like
to run
the rate of answers
60%
administrative y
procedures
too much
bureaucracy
70%
lack of appropriate
financial capital
0%
family/ Friends
discouraged me
from starting
a business
the rate of answers
60%
kinds of public administration positions (unemployed and inactive - 18% and contract
employees - 18%).
The factors which may have an influence on lack of interest in entrepreneurship by women,
especially by contract employees, are various entitlements as part of being a contract worker. Among the most significant advantages of working for somebody else women mention
mostly the regularity of income (contract employees - 31%, unemployed and inactive 33%) and various benefits such as paid leaves / holiday, notice period and so forth (contract
employees - 30%, unemployed and inactive - 30%)87.
It appears that the barriers preventing women from starting a business activity are similar
regardless of their professional status in the market. Another question then arises: What
would encourage inactive and contract female employees to start working on their own?
And what would help women already running a business activity develop their companies?
These questions will be answered in the chapter below.
1.6. Ways of encouraging women to start and develop their
own companies
According to female respondents taking part in the quantitative survey, which was conducted among women of different professional status in the market (PAPI I) who do not run
a business activity at present, the most motivating factor to start a business would be lower
labour costs, lower taxes and pair taxes. This opinion was expressed by 60% of unemployed
and inactive women and 48% of contract employees. Initially (Charts 6 and 7) they paid
attention to the capital barrier when starting a business activity, now they would find facilities in terms of lower costs of running a company, and not its establishing more important.
Of the same opinion are women who already run a business activity. Fiscal policy, lower
taxes and compulsory insurance fees were indicated by almost all female entrepreneurs
(93%) as the factor which would enable them to develop and promote their enterprise.
The next issue that needed improving, according to female non-entrepreneurs, was lowering administrative barriers accompanying the process of company registration. Shorter
and easier procedures of registration, as the factor to persuade them to start a business
activity, are mentioned by 58% of unemployed and inactive women and 28% of women
working as contract employees. What is interesting is the fact that the factor of simplifying the procedures is also pointed to by women already running a business activity. 68%
of them believe that it would enable them to develop their companies.
Similar conclusions are provided by the experimental study. The respondents more often
decided to undertake a business activity when they knew that the success of the business would mostly depend on them – on the knowledge they have, their skills, experience
and engagement, and not on the outer factors on which they have no direct influence.
This means that entrepreneurship growth, both of men and women, can be achieved by
simplifying the procedures connected with starting and running a business activity, and,
at the same time, by making these procedures clear and comprehensive. As potential entrepreneurs do not understand complex legal regulations, they often count on their good
luck. Thanks to less complicated procedures entrepreneurs will be able to focus on what
87
The gravity difference is not statistically important, p<0,05
71
should be the most important for them, that is the work directly connected with running
their business, and they would also be more willing to choose this form of employment. It
is worth emphasising that these results are independent as far as gender is concerned. Both
men and women would expect institutional facilities, on which they have little influence.
What is interesting is the fact that almost half of unemployed and inactive (48%) and working as contract employees (51%) would be willing to start their own company if they were
not able to find any contract work. In the study there were no clarifying questions whether the respondents would agree on the so-called ostensible self-employment or to start
a company to lower the costs incurred by the employer for whom they would actually work
caring out the responsibilities of a contract employee.
According to quantitative surveys PAPI I, one out of three surveyed women encouraged
by a friend to start a business activity would make that decision. Analysing the individual
answers given by female entrepreneurs, it appears that such cases occur and are treated
then as an opportunity and the prevailing situation which should be taken advantage of:
„an initiator of this business activity was my friend, who worked for Work Standards Department, and now works for me ”
(a woman running a company since 2007, in `Education’ section, 2 employees).
An extended spectrum of incentives, which may be addressed to women interested in starting a business activity, can be found in individual interviews by experienced female entrepreneurs. Referring to their experience and difficulties, which they had to overcome or are
still facing, they form different postulates. The most common are those connected with
simplifying the access to institutional care over small children, which would enable them
to decide easily to start their own business:
„surely a widely available access to nurseries and kindergartens, but nothing more. No additional things, no privileges.”
(a woman running a company since 1996, in `Education’ section, 20 employees, 1 child).
What would discourage other women to start their own business activity is to show
the advantages and benefits coming from self-employment. These could be:
‚‚ financial independence:
„independence first and foremost. I think that women aspire to be independent. Not because they want to be totally independent of men, but because nowadays it is difficult on the
whole. So I think that every woman prefers to have her own money, has her own expenditure,
her own secrets, so she needs money for that. At some point, her partner may become jobless.
This gives some kind of security of the family when she works”
(a woman running a company since 1994,
in `Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 3 employees, 2 children);
‚‚
72
the possibility to realise one’s own plans:
„the possibility of doing the job they would love to do. The possibility of doing the job they
love. That is the main reason for starting their own company. For me, if I have my own business, I can devote more time to it one day. The other day I can spend with my family and take
care of my home life, and that is a big advantage”
(a woman running a company since 1981,
in `Wholesale and retail trades’ section, 2 employees, 3 children);
‚‚
the possibility of flexible working hours:
„that is the greatest advantage when we can adapt working hours to our needs, to the needs
of our family. This is also a priority”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees);
‚‚
showing good examples of female entrepreneurs who achieved success:
„maybe showing that women are successful, that they can manage. As I say, they got rid
of small-town mentality, now they need good education, some support and they will cope”
(a woman running a company since 2000,
in `Industrious processing’ section, 12 employees).
The way to encourage women to start their own business and become interested in entrepreneurship would be widely available training upgrading the qualifications:
„first and foremost the possibility of training, broadening and upgrading our knowledge”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Other services activity’ section, 4 employees);
„maybe courses, maybe trainings, as I said at the beginning. Strong motivation is necessary.”
(a woman running a company since 2005, in `Building’ section, 12 employees).
Women often form their postulates in terms of personality features which they need if they
want to start a business activity. They refer to such personality characteristics as firmness,
calculation, self-confidence, willingness to develop, faith in one’s own possibilities, supported at the same time by appropriate professional preparation and background:
„I think that firstly a woman must be tough I think that tougher than a man when starting
a company, secondly, she cannot in any way try to replace any knowledge or skills with her
beautiful face, that doesn’t work. That’s it. If I were to give some advice to a young woman
how to start her company, I would tell her to be cool, calm and calculating so that everything will go smoothly. And she definitely shouldn’t give up if a clerk says that sooner or later
the company would go bankrupt.”
(a woman running a company since 2006, in `Professional,
scientific and technical activity’ section, 32 employees);
„only the willingness to develop. If a woman wants to have her own company, she has
to be an energetic person who knows whether she will manage or not. If she manages well
at home, if she wants to develop further, there no reason why she shouldn’t have a company.
Magda, for example, has two children, small children, and she manages well. She and Michał
look after the children”
(a woman running a company since 1997, in `Activity connected
with accommodation and catering services’ section, 16 employees, 2 children);
„not every woman believes in herself. I think that the truth is… men I think believe that
a woman should stay at home, bring up children and do household chores; some women
lack faith in themselves and their skills, they don’t believe that they are able to achieve something, do something only for themselves, that they can support the family equally well as
the other person, that is their partner / husband”
(a woman running a company since 1990, in `Activity connected with culture,
entertainment and recreation’ section, 225 employees, 2 children).
73
The analysis of quality and quantity studies on motives to start a business activity shows
that the motives of women are actually varied; however, they do not differ much from
motives important for men. Just as men, women mostly want to improve the financial situation of themselves and their families. They aspire to fulfil their plans and dreams about running a company, develop their passions and interests develop themselves professionally,
which is not always possible in a contracted work.
Analysing the paths of the flow of women into self-employment, it is clear that the vast
majority of them (68% -PAPI II, 56% - PAPI I), similarly to men (67% - PAPI II) earlier worked
full-time as contract employees. On the other hand, summarising the results of the studies on the reasons for not undertaking a business activity by the unemployed, inactive
and women working as contract employees, it could be observed that lack of appropriate funds and administrative procedures connected with starting and running a company, which are too bothersome and complex, discourage women from becoming selfemployed.
In reference to these obstacles, unemployed, inactive and contract female employees claim
that the most motivating factor to start a business activity was lower labour costs. This
opinion was expressed by 60% of unemployed and inactive women and 48%of contract
employees.
2. Conditions and barriers of female entrepreneurship development
One of the aims of the study was to identify the conditions and barriers of female entrepreneurship. Generally speaking, entrepreneurship is analysed in the context of conditions
and barriers of different character: psychological; personal depending on the individual,
their personality features, their attitudes and behaviours, as well as social-cultural, institutional, formed by demo-graphical structure, the system of education, law and political systems. These conditions are of the outer character compared to the resourceful individual.
Thus, the decision to start a business activity will result from the clash of inner, conditioned
psychologically, motivations and outer, socially and economically motivated, determinants.
It is worth considering to what degree these conditions and barriers refer to everybody,
and to what degree they refer mainly to women.
In the process of the study the following hypothesis were put forward:
‚‚ There are conditions and social-cultural barriers in starting a business activity which are particularly experienced by women, including psychological factors, which are the reason for
starting a business company more often by men than by women.
‚‚ There are conditions and institutional barriers which affect more the entrepreneurship level
of women than men (including the particular technical infrastructure, education, having
children, tax system, access to institutional care over small children, professional activity
of other family members).
74
2.1. Psychological and social-cultural conditions and barriers
To verify the hypothesis on social-cultural conditions and barriers, there were the following
research questions posed:
‚‚ How do the cultural norms existing in the society (eg. referring to social roles ascribed to each
gender) influence the decision to start a business activity?
‚‚ Does the traditional socialisation make it difficult for women to make a decision about starting their own company?
‚‚ To what degree do psychological features (eg. tendency to take risks connected with
the decision about employment, self-confidence optimism, fulfilment of your own
goals) encourage women and men to undertake self-employment?
2.1.1. The influence of the cultural norms existing in the society
on starting a business activity by women
Analysing the answers given by both female and male entrepreneurs in individual
and group interviews, a repetitive pattern of answers presenting the changes which took
place in Polish society over the years could be observed. These observations refer mostly
to the changes in the division of roles in the family, taking more often the form of partnership in which, on the one hand, men more actively participate in the family duties including
care over children and responsibility for some of the household duties. On the other hand,
there is a noticeable change in women’s attitude towards professional career, which does
not have to collide with having a family any more:
„There is now a balance between family life and professional life, I can see now women running around shopping centres doing shopping, and men with strollers feeding the children.
And that is the question exclusively of partnership and delegating duties within the marriage.
It is not a problem, but I think that women should realise more that they can make a career
at any stage of their life, and there are no time barriers, and I am a perfect example of this, it is
never too late to change jobs, take on new challenges, get familiar with new technologies.
For me it is not a problem to use the Internet or a mobile phone, or the latest technology.”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in ‘Wholesale and retain trade’ section, 2 employees, 2 children);
„in our society there is a belief that a woman must take care of her home, family, children first,
and then she can take care of her career, it doesn’t have to be that way, as if there are two
grown-ups in the family, then it could be handled in a different way; suppose the woman
starts a company and, as you said, she organises her household duties or she arranges with
her partner that from now on he will engage himself more in the family life, then it can be
managed well, we should overcome certain barriers and stereotypes”
(former entrepreneurs – a man).
There are also changes in perceiving the career of women as uncommon and unusual. At present more often than not professional careers of women and their successes
and achievements are considered to be a natural and obvious thing:
„women used to be taught since they were children that it was the man who earned a living,
and she brought up children; And as I look at the girls now, I can see they are very independent , they want to work and keep saying: count only on yourself.”
75
(a woman running a company since 2000,
in ‘Industrial processing’ section 12 employees);
„looking back to the 1930s, a businesswoman and an owner of her successful company was
the subject of gossip at parties. Business world ,since the time of the industrial revolution, was
male dominated, and at some point it changed and now it it so obvious for us .”
(novice entrepreneurs – a man).
2.1.2. The influence of traditional socialisation on starting a business activity by women
In the course of time, traditional socialisation has ceased to condition the professional activity of women. Attention is paid to, among others, the fact that women are no longer traditionally prepared exclusively to the roles of mothers and wives:
„surely mother’s care will be better than father’s, but as we know, if the mother works, then
everything changes; the woman no longer has to take care of children, do the cooking
or the cleaning; we can try and change this but it may be difficult as there is this stereotype
of women’s roles in the family and society”
(former entrepreneurs – a man).
Nowadays women are well educated (according to the statistics, they are better educated
than men; more women have higher education), often they acquire education in the fields
that used to be set aside for men, which results in, further on, women taking on more of the
so-called ‘masculine’ jobs (eg. a driver, a police officer, a building site manager):
„the differences in attitude of women and men towards entrepreneurship, in my opinion, are
gradually blurring. There used to be faculties at universities more popular with women than
men, and as I said, when I was studying at the Polytechnic there were two of us girls, the rest
were the boys. Nowadays, at the engineering department there are more and more girls
and as I already mentioned the girls are doing fine, better and better, they cope well because
I think they have those features of personality which employers appreciate. And the fact that
they have children isn’t a problem any more. I mean, maybe there is, with nurseries, kindergartens, but they do well, ”
(a woman running a company since 2000,
in ‘Industrial processing’ section, 12 employees).
According to female respondents, having a higher education eliminates the differences
in perceiving men and women as potential entrepreneurs. The examples taken from home
also contribute to the fact that there are equal chance, being created for men and women
to fulfil professional plans and ambitions. According to the qualitative survey, the respondents regarded the possibilities to attest how to run a business activity’ such as business
incubators as greatly important:
„among people with higher education, like in my social circle, I can see no difference, maybe
women with lower education take care of the home, are afraid to stand out in the crowd. This
is what I see among my patients. Men are more courageous than women to start anything.
But as for higher education, I see no difference”
(a woman running a company 1997,
in ‘Health care and social security’ section, 1 employee);
76
„I think that it is the problem not only of education, but the family home where you are bro-
ught up, there are examples there and it is also better and more interesting at school now,
because there are business incubators, you can start a company, test it virtually, if it is successful, you enter the market and that’s great. Some people find satisfaction and fulfilment
with family life, children and so on, and that is a big business too; others find fulfilment outside their homes, and that is a matter of personality, some people are one way, some people
are another way .”
(novice entrepreneurs – a man).
2.1.3. The influence of psychological characteristics on starting
a business activity by men and women
A significant factor determining the choice of employment form may be personality features, eg. a tendency to take risks, self-confidence, optimism, aspiration for the set objectives and so forth. One may wonder whether, and if yes then to what degree, these factors
encourage men and women to start a business activity. Entrepreneurs were asked (the
quantitative study among female and male entrepreneurs, PAPI II) to identify the features
of personality of an entrepreneur. The answers are presented in Chart 8.
Chart 8.
The most significant features of an entrepreneur.
60%
50% 49%
40%
33%
30%
31%
28%29%
19%
16%
20%
9%10%
10%
7% 8%
10% 9%
9% 8%
Source:
men
Easiness
in making
contacts
having a wide
range of contacts
in the business
environment
women
Resilience to
failures
Risk lover
Creativity and
innovativeness
Courage
Patience
Industriousness
0%
6% 6%
Knowledge on how
to run and manage
a company
50%
Independent study on the basis of PA PI II study. Female and male entrepreneurs: M = 806,
F = 996.
Both male and female entrepreneurs ranked industriousness as the most important feature
(50% of women and 49% of men). A crucial role in running a business activity is also played
by patience (women - 33%, men - 31%), creativity and innovativeness (women - 28%, men 29%), and courage (women - 16%, men - 19%). In the above studies there are no significant
statistical differences in the answers given by men and women.
Women only slightly more often than men (similar discrepancies above) indicate to the socalled soft skills such as: ease of communication (10%) or having a wide range of contacts
in the business environment (9%). Men, though, believe more often that entrepreneurs
should like taking risks (10%), and having contacts is of less significance for them.
It appears that the knowledge on how to run and manage a business activity is not that
important, according to the respondents – it was pointed to by 6% of company owners
of both genders.
77
The results of the experimental study prove that men and women have a similar level
of knowledge as do entrepreneurs and other persons. Entrepreneurship knowledge test,
conducted as part of the experimental study among the participants, proved that there
are no statistically important differences between the four categories of the study: female
entrepreneurs, male entrepreneurs, female non-entrepreneurs and male non-entrepreneurs.
The analysis of the results of qualitative surveys also provides information about the level
of knowledge by company owners. Not many female entrepreneurs admitted that when
starting their business activity they had knowledge on how to run a company; more often
they claimed that they did not have any:
„general knowledge on how to run a company, I didn’t have any, I didn’t have such experience
and any idea on how to do it. I just, as I say, entered that business field with insecurity”
(a woman running a company since 1997, in Activity connected
with accommodation and catering services’ section, 16 employees, 2 children).
The knowledge necessary to run a business activity was acquired more frequently while
running a company, by attending additional courses, training or observing the market
around them (magazines, the Internet), less often at school or university:
„as I mentioned before, I finished economics, I did MBA additionally, and there I studied things
I could use in my professional projects, it gave me some idea how to organise and arrange
my professional duties and run my company. And besides, training and courses give a lot,
the observations of the market too, that is the best, in my opinion, and gives me most experience. But you should do it systematically, you cannot leave anything behind as everything
is changing fast, and to find a niche on the market you have to keep up to date all the time”
(a woman running a company since 2000,
in Industrial processing’ section, 12 employees).
The qualitative surveys also provided a wide range of characteristics listed by female
and male entrepreneurs, which are important in running a company, and are often identified with the word entrepreneurial’. Among numerous features indicated by entrepreneurs
there appeared also those which were pointed to by the respondents of quantitative surveys conducted among male and female entrepreneurs (PAPI II). Moreover, the respondents
of qualitative surveys identified such entrepreneurial characteristics as: the ability to adapt
to the situation, responsibility, abilities to predict, aspiration for set objectives, creativity,
own initiative, being economical.
The features of an entrepreneur can be identified in the following statements:
„do what you do well. So that, the service they provide for your community was reliable. That
is the most important.”
(a woman running a company since 1996, in `Education’ section, 1 employee).
78
The entrepreneurs participating in both studies were far from stating that resourcefulness
as a tendency to start a business activity and the skills and possibilities to run it depend
on gender. They often agreed that it is the characteristics of an individual person that influence the way of running a business activity. Some of these features, eg. caution in taking
risks, conservatism, pettiness decide whether the company will develop into a more complex structure:
„In general it depends on the person. I see this barrier as an individual one, personal, which
made me run my company one way and not another. Economic issues, responsibilities are
surely another issue , I also have a strong attitude to the issue of not taking big risks. It works
for me, but that’s me”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees);
„in this activity, I see no difference, I think that women perform better here than men. However, the norm is that women set up small companies with several employees, they don’t aspire
for the further development of the company, as the work is a great burden for their family life,
and men treat the problem more in managerial terms and are able to invest time and money
into undertakings of various kinds”
(a woman running a company since 2003,
in `Activity connected with real estate services’ section).
Some personality features such as flexibility, ability to adapt to changing conditions, emotionality make it easier for women to run a business activity:
„I believe that women are more flexible and adapt more quickly. Men, that’s your speciality,
men are ... they are difficult to change and be changed.”
(a woman running a company since 2005,
in `Transport and storage economy’ section, 15 employees, 2 children);
„it actually makes it easier for women to be often more emotional and emphatic in contacts
with people, that is they are able to adapt to the person they’re talking to and very often sense
their intentions and act subconsciously, or listen to their intuition, and that’s why they perform better at the contact with clients, customer service and so forth”.
(experienced entrepreneurs – a woman).
According to some entrepreneurs, female company owners take over some features
ascribed to men, not always positive, eg. the tendency for aggression, ruthlessness in order
to, in the opinion of the respondents, become equal with men in the business field:
„women, since they are perceived as theoretically worse, try extremely hard to take over our
position and very often they can, they’re worse than us, ruthless in relationships with others,
in business relationships indeed, they are ruthless because they want to be stronger than
men”
(experienced entrepreneurs – a man).
These kinds of observations are confirmed by women themselves who admit that very
often the fact that they are women enables them to take on certain actions and behaviours,
which would not be accepted as far as men are concerned:
„women find it easier to put themselves in the role of the aggressor, as less is expected
of them. When I was offered a position where I was to deal mainly with negotiations, I was
told I would be excellent at it because I was a cool girl, a blind eye may be turned more often
to my actions, and a guy will behave better as he deals with a woman.”
( experienced entrepreneurs - a woman).
The results of desk research analysis indicated that one of the most important features
of an entrepreneur is their attitude towards taking risks, that is why this characteristic was
the subject of the conducted quantitative and experimental studies.
79
The results of numerous research showed that women declare stronger aversion to take
risks than men. This observation is not confirmed in this case, though. The respondents
of both qualitative surveys were asked to what degree the person agrees or not with different statements examining, among others, the tendency for taking risks. The analysis of the
results of the study carried our among female and male entrepreneurs (PAPI II) indicated
that there are no significant discrepancies in the answers given by men and women.
In addition, there are no crucial differences in attitudes towards taking risks among women
of a different professional status (PAPI I). The only key differences appeared as for the following statement „I like competing with other people”. This opinion was expressed more often by
women running a business activity rather than female contract workers.
In the experimental study the attitude towards taking risks by the participants was assessed
by means of three independent methods checking: (i) declared risk; (ii) risk taken in a hypothetical situation; (iii) actual risk taken in the context of choosing the form of employment.
The first method was to ask the participants the question: „What is your attitude towards
taking risks and gambling?”. On the basis of this, the rate of persons declaring taking risks
was calculated – „I like taking risks” (the first column in the Table below). The entrepreneurs
declared that they like taking risks more often than the non-entrepreneurs (regardless
of gender). Among the persons avoiding taking risks the biggest rate (50%) was among
female non-entrepreneurs. It suggests that women do not become entrepreneurs by
choice and it would be difficult to change their attitude and opinions by means of support
programmes.
Table 1.
The attitude of the participants to taking risks – general balance
KP - female entrepreneurs, MP - male entrepreneurs, KNP - female non-entrepreneurs,
MNP - male non-entrepreneurs.
I like taking risks
Lottery – bonus
(% of risk takers)
Lottery – loss
(% of risk takers)
Self-employment
KP
73,5%
32,4%
82,4%
68,8%
MP
71,4%
31,4%
57,1%
63,8%
KNP
50,0%
15,2%
63,0%
53,7%
MNP
64,4%
13,3%
42,2%
45,5%
Total
63,8%
21,9%
60,0%
56,8%
Source:
Independent study on the basis of the experimental study.
The second method of assessing the attitude towards taking risks was to make two independent choices88. In the first case the participants having an initial capital of 3000 PLN
made a decision whether they would rather take the safe bonus of 1000 PLN or take part
in the lottery, where the chances of receiving a bonus of 2000 PLN were 50% and the chances of receiving 0 PLN were 50% as well. In the other case, the participants having an initial
capital of 5000 PLN made a decision whether they would prefer the safe loss of 1000 PLN
or they would take part in the lottery with 50% of chances to make a loss of 2000 PLN
and 50% of chances to make a loss of 0 PLN.
88����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Choice 1: „Imagine you receive a salary of 3000 PLN. Which will you choose? (i) The safe profit of 1000 PLN; (ii) Lot-
80
tery with a profit of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or a profit 2000 PLN (50% chances)”.
Choice 2: „Imagine you receive a salary of 5000 PLN. Which will you choose? (i) 0: The safe loss of 1000 PLN; (ii) Lottery with a loss of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or a loss of 2000 PLN (50% of chances)”.
The above choices, from the theoretical point of view, are identical and could lead to the
decision: (i) Safe income of 4000 PLN; (ii) Lottery in which the payment is 5000 PLN (50%
of chances) or 3000 PLN (50% of chances). The results of these studies should be identical.
However, it appears the words „loss” and „bonus” have a strong emotional influence on the
respondents, who treated the above decisions as totally different, not comparable directly,
by which they very often made different choices – which is presented in columns 2 and 3
in the table above. The obtained results show that the majority of the respondents are
willing to make a loss than gain a bonus, which is in accordance with the results of other
studies. In the bonus lottery the vast majority of the respondents chose the safe bonus
(78,1%). In this case, there was a noticeable difference between entrepreneurs and nonentrepreneurs – the entrepreneurs more often took risks in order to gain a higher bonus
(about 32%) than the non-entrepreneurs (about 14%). Statistically, the difference was not
important in terms of gender. In the loss lottery the participants took risks definitely more
often, not accepting the safe loss. On the one hand, the entrepreneurs ,more often than
other categories, chose the lottery that allowed them not to make a loss. On the other
hand, women definitely more often than men decided to take risks, not accepting the loss
of money. Although 73,5% of female entrepreneurs and 50% of female non-entrepreneurs
declared that they like taking risks, as many as 82,4% of female entrepreneurs and 63%
of female non-entrepreneurs actually took risks to avoid the safe loss.
Finally, the third method of examining the tendency to take risks was a series of choices
in terms of the form of employment the participants chose in the particular rounds (the
results are presented in column 4 in Table 1). According to the analyses described previously in the report, entrepreneurs more often decided on self-employment than nonentrepreneurs. Statistically, though, there were no significant differences between men
and women.
In conclusion, it could be stated that there are no crucial differences between men
and women as for the attitude towards taking risks. The obtained results confirmed that
the unwillingness of women to take a job with the irregularity of income is the reason for
relatively low female participation among entrepreneurs. However, there are discrepancies
between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. Persons running a business activity more
often than not declare taking risks and actually doing so. Thus, these persons are willing
to take on a job with an irregularity of income.
In order to look at entrepreneurship determinants from a general point of view, on the
basis of the experimental study, the ligit model was assessed, which explained the probability of undertaking self-employment influenced by the following variables: being entrepreneurial, gender, mechanism of creating a ranking list, market size, the expected competition level on the market, the level of knowledge on entrepreneurship, attitude towards
taking risks, trust, spontaneity and emotionality of the undertaken decision89.
89
A detailed description of the form of the assessed model was presented in Chapter II, and the detailed results
of the assessment of the particular parameters are included in Attachment 1 of this report. The report on the experimental study.
81
In the obtained model, statistically speaking, the most important were the following variables:
‚‚ Entrepreneurship (Entrep) – entrepreneurial persons chose self-employment more often.
‚‚ Gender (Gender) – women more often than men chose self-employment. This variable
is not so important at the level p=0,01. In many models it was also not important at the
level p=0,05. That is why the gravity of differences in terms of gender is a disputable
issue. Surely, it is not true that men chose self-employment more often than women.
‚‚ Round type (Type) – in TEST rounds, in which the salary of the participants depended
on the result of the entrepreneurship test, the respondents undertook self-employment
more often than in LOS rounds.
‚‚ Market size (Size) – the bigger the market size, that is the bigger number of businesses
can be successful, the more persons decided on self-employment.
‚‚ The expected excess of companies on the market (Excess) – the bigger the predicted
difference between the number of companies on the market (apart from us) and the
market size, the less often the participants decided on self-employment. It means that
the predicted level of competition on the market affected the decisions about starting
a business activity made by the participants.
‚‚ Declared risk (I Risk) – the bigger the declared risk, the more often the participants made
a decision about self-employment.
One wonders that such features as emotions and spontaneity, trust and the risk taken,
in terms of income / salary amount, did not account for the choices of the respondents
about the form of employment. It appears, though, that these variables co-relate with
Entrepreneurship variable and Gender variable, which influenced the frequency of choosing self-employment. As it was already mentioned above, here were differences between
entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs in terms of their attitude towards taking risks. Entrepreneurs more often than not declare taking risks and actually doing so. Thus, these persons were willing to take on a job with an irregularity of income. Moreover, the research
showed that entrepreneurs, compared to non-entrepreneurs, trusted people less. In reference to the differences between genders, women trusted people less than men. The least
trustful group were female entrepreneurs, and the most trustful were male non-entrepreneurs. The experiment also showed more emotional and spontaneous decision making by
women than by men. The above personality features influenced only indirectly (through
gender and entrepreneurship) the analysed choices in terms of the forms of employment,
that is why they are not so important in the light of the ligit model presented above.
2.2. Demo-graphical and family conditions
Another hypothesis assumes that demo-graphical features differentiate the entrepreneurial behaviour of men and women. To verify this hypothesis the following research questions
were posed:
‚‚ In what way do demo-graphical features (eg. age, education, having children and a partner,
family situation) determine entrepreneurial activities of men and women?
‚‚ Is the decision about running a company connected with a particular stage of life?
82
2.2.1. Demo-graphical features as determinants of enterprise
activities
To examine the strength of the influence of female different social-demo-graphical features on the probability of starting a company, assuming that there are no changes in other
variables, two ligit models were assessed on the basis of individual interviews. The group
of explanatory variables of the ligit model included the following variables: age, work
experience, the region of residence, student status, marital status, the level of education,
the kind of education, having children under 7 years old90. The assessment results of model
I (the probability of having a company in relation to not having one) and of model II (the
probability of having a company in relation to contract work) are presented in the Tables 2
and 3 below91.
Table 2.
The results of the assessment of model I – the probability of having a company in relation
to not having a company
B
Stand. error.
Wald
age
Variables
-0,321**
0,043
55,579
work experience
0,061**
0,030
3,968
region (south)
-0,248
0,438
0,321
region (east)
0,055
0,427
0,016
region (north-west)
0,210
0,374
0,316
region (south-west)
-0,432
0,532
0,658
region (north)
0,617
0,355
3,015
education (a student)
-19,983
2056,079
0,000
marital status (single)
-1,632**
0,433
14,186
level of education (post high-school
and higher)
-0,977**
0,326
8,963
region
6,173
kind of education.
9,978
biological, mathematical, technical studies,
production and processing, agriculture fostery, fishery, veterinary)
-0,251
0,342
0,539
arts and social studies, pedagogy, art
-0,987**
0,380
6,739
health protection, public health, social care
-19,982
3788,262
0,000
-0,980**
0,472
4,303
risk tendency (I like taking risks)
-0,063
0,258
0,060
children under 7 years old (yes)
-1,219**
0,290
17,625
constant
10,359**
1,503
kind of education (others, including basic
secondary)
-2 logarithm of reliability
426,338
Source:
90
47,504
R2 Coxa i Snell
R2 Nagelkerk
0,175
0,396
Independent assessment on the basis a survey. ** variable important at the gravity level
of p =0,05.
A detailed description of the form of the assessed model was presented in Chapter II.
91������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The values of assessment of the parameters for the particular variables show the direction of changes of the prob-
ability of having a company in relation to the referred group, assuming that there is no change in other variables.
Thus, positive values of B rate show that a proper variable ceteris paribus increases the probability of having a company( including self-employment) and the negative values of B show that the variable decreases the probability
of having a company. The observed differences, for which p is lower than 0,05, are statistically important.
83
Table 3.
The results of the assessment of model II – the probability of having a company to the contracted work
Variables
B
Stand. error.
Wald
-0,369**
0,051
52,905
-0,011
0,033
0,113
region (south)
-0,285
0,487
0,343
region (east)
0,245
0,475
0,266
region (north-west)
0,229
0,418
0,300
region (south-west)
-0,298
0,572
0,272
0,857**
0,402
4,538
education (a student)
-21,335
2176,581
0,000
marital status (single)
-2,379**
0,538
19,546
level of education (post high-school
and higher)
-2,365**
0,467
25,652
age
work experience
region
7,492
region (north)
kind of education
5,389
biological, mathematical, technical studies,
production and processing, agriculture, forestry, fishery, veterinary)
0,515
0,400
1,660
arts and social studies, pedagogy, art
-0,367
0,429
0,734
health protection, public health, social security
-21,032
3572,153
0,000
-1,619**
0,716
5,114
risk tendency (I like taking risks)
0,283
0,289
0,962
children under 7 years old (yes)
-1,485**
0,360
17,023
constant
13,827**
1,984
kind of education (others, including basic
secondary)
-2 logarithm of reliability
328,765
Source:
48,557
R2 Coxa i Snell
R2 Nagelkerk
0,266
0,518
Independent assessment on the basis of a survey. ** variable important at the gravity level
of p =0,05.
As can be observed in both models, the age significantly and negatively influences
the chances of having a company: the older the respondent, the less the chances of becoming an entrepreneur. It should be remembered that the surveyed group was at the age
of 25 - 44 years old, so at the age of a relatively high professional activity.
The influence of work experience is weaker generally but insignificant in terms of the
chances of contract work in relation to having a company.
The region of residence is not the variable significantly affecting the discussed variables.
Only in terms of model II in the north region women are more probable to be entrepreneurs than contract workers compared to the central region (reference groups in this variable).
Education in any form – full-time, external, courses – does not significantly influence
the chances of starting a company by women at the age of 25 – 44 .
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Single women have less chances of becoming entrepreneurs, which may suggest that having a husband or partner providing the family with secure and regular income encourages
women to make a decision about starting a company. On the other hand, some of female
companies result from taking over the husband’s company or becoming a partner in it,
to which female respondents of IDI study referred.
What is interesting is the fact that women with education level lower than post high-school
education more often undertake a business activity. Having at least post high-school level
of education in particular increases chances of contract work in relation to having a company. Having the education in the field other than economy, administration or law theoretically decreases the chances of becoming an entrepreneur (‘-’ with assessed parameters),
though for many types of education these are not significant differences. In model I the
significant differences are for such types of education as arts and social studies, pedagogy
and art, and in both models for basic secondary and others type of education.
The declared tendency to take risks does not differentiate significantly the chances of starting a company. However, having children under the age of 7 crucially decreases the chances of becoming an entrepreneur in relation to both having a different status on the market (model I) and undertaking contract work (model II). Similarly, a number of children
in the family has a negative and crucial influence - variable was included in an additionally
assessed model, not presented in this study.
According to the estimations, the most important demo-graphical features influencing the decision to start a business activity are age (the older the respondent, the fewer
chances of becoming an entrepreneur), marital status (single women have fewer chances
of becoming company owners) and the level of education (the higher the level – above
high school level - the fewer chances of self-employment). According to the ligit models
and statistical tables presented in chapter II, it is clear that the level of education negatively
co-relates with starting a business activity. It is surprising and can be accounted for the fact
that well-educated persons can find a well-paid and satisfying contract work easier.
2.2.2. The decision about starting a company vs the stage of life
According to the estimations of the ligit models examining the influence of different factors (including having small children) on the probability of starting a company (Table 2),
having small children under the age of 7 decreases the chances of becoming an entrepreneur. It is more probable that a woman with small children will decide to work as a contract
employee or remain inactive in the market. It means that women who are young mothers
will decide less often to start a business activity.
The confirmation of this thesis can be found in the individual statements of experienced
female entrepreneurs, who most often started their companies when their children were
independent and self-reliable.
When the children are small women less often decide to start a business activity, they even
admit that in the first period of the child’s life they should devote as much time to him/ her
as possible:
„the studies on this issue are recent, new theories state that minimum for 2 years children
need their mothers. And I checked it myself. I know, I remember caring for my daughter for 2
years, fortunately I was posted abroad so I didn’t have this professional dualism.”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in `Wholesale and retail trade’ section, 2 employees, 2 children).
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Similar observations are made by men, according to whom it is very important for parents
to be with their children on a daily basis, take an active part in their upbringing, which very
often is difficult when you have your own company:
„Surely children may be a problem if you are on business trips all the time , it would be good
to see the child every day, talk to them seriously, then it’s not a good time to start a business
to which you have to devote 14, 16 hours a day.”
(FGI, future entrepreneurs – a man).
Sometimes women admit that they started their company when their maternity leave was
about to end, but they emphasise the importance of their family support, which meant
looking after the small children:
„Family support is the key, it was great that my child was being looked after, and sometimes
the support was psychological, encouraging me to go on”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees, 1 child);
„I had some support from my husband, he took care of children when I was busy in the doctor’s office”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Health care and social security’ section, 10 employees, 3 children).
The example of a woman, now mother of 4, is worth mentioning here. She started a company in order to have a bigger family. She created a workplace for herself which enables
her to combine family duties and professional responsibilities, though as she admits with
a lot of family support.
Similar opinions can be found in other statements:
„I brought up my child on my own and it didn’t bother me, I had two jobs, if you are determined you can do it and cope well”
(a woman running a company since 2004,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’, 2 employees).
The stage of life which has the greatest influence on starting a business activity by women
is the time when they give birth to and bring up their children. It appears that some women,
according to individual interview respondents, withdraw from the business activity at the
time to take care of their children. This fact strengthens the postulate of the development
of the state policy supporting families as a way to combine the professional activity (running your own company) and bringing up the children. It means that creating better conditions of care over small children would significantly influence the increase in female professional activity, including starting a company by women at the moment when they are
forced to stay at home to look after their children.
2.3. Institutional conditions and barriers
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A number of different actions of the state referring to entrepreneurship, eg. fiscal policy,
access to capital, access to technical infrastructure, more available and accessible care over
children, administrative procedures, influence running a business activity. They can support
it and enable its development, or hinder its progress and growth. The aim of the study was,
among others, to examine which of these actions equally influence female and male entre-
preneurship, and which are particularly affecting the companies run by women.
In the process of the study the following research questions were posed:
‚‚ Which barriers of entrepreneurship development refer to both men and women, and which
particularly affect women?
‚‚ Which actions of the state (determinants), eg, access to capital, fiscal policy, development
and research promotion, access to technical infrastructure, enabling to combine family
and professional duties, influence equally men and women, and which affect companies
run by women to a greater degree?
‚‚ Which legal changes (institutional changes) can have a positive influence on starting
and developing a business activity undertaken by women?
‚‚ What factors (of what character) decide about the plans to run a company (women – men)
and fulfil these plans?
‚‚ What are the development plans of the companies run by women compared to those run
by men?
‚‚ Where do they find main restrictions, barriers, and what is the stimulus to aspire for development?
In the following chapter, compared to chapter 1.5. Reasons for lack of interest in business
activity presenting barriers in starting a business activity according to female non-entrepreneurs, there will be barriers in entrepreneurship development presented according to men
and women running a business activity.
2.3.1. Barriers of entrepreneurship development according
to men and women
Generally speaking, barriers of entrepreneurship development indicated by the respondents of all studies (qualitative, quantitative, experimental) equally refer to both men
and women. Entrepreneurs, regardless of age, point to the same difficulties with running
a company, and mostly these barriers are of institutional character (Chart 9).
Chart 9.
What is or was the most difficult when running a company?
35%
30%
30%
32%
28%
women
30%
men
25%
17% 18%
20%
15%
13% 13%
10%
7%
6%
7%
6%
Source:
Competition
on the part of
grey area
Not flexible
enough
labour law
Too high
out-of-salary
labour costs
(taxes and insurance)
Competition
on the part of
other companies
Gaining
new
clients
0%
Access to
capital
financing the
company’ s growth
5%
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study; male and female entrepreneurs: N = 806 F
i 996 M.
87
According to the analysis of the conducted studies, fiscal policy and labour law are among
the barriers hindering the process of running and developing a company. Thus, we examined to what degree these barriers are experienced more by women, and to what degree
they influence both female and male entrepreneurs.
It appears that both men and women, in a study among male and female entrepreneurs
(PAPI II), point to the same barriers, and the ranking of answers to the question about
the main difficulties with running a company is the same. There are also no statistically
important differences as for the answers of men and women.
The greatest difficulty for men and women running a company are too high out-of-salary
labour costs (taxes, social insurance fees). This opinion is expressed by one out of three
women and one out of three men as well – owners of private companies.
Apart from fiscal policy, bothersome administration is also a burden. 28% of women
and 30% of men admit that filling out tax and accountancy forms makes it difficult for them
to run a company.
Among the barriers independent of the state policy, legal and financial systems and so
forth, obtaining new clients is the most bothersome. Almost 30% of women and 28%
of men are of this opinion.
Another place in the ranking is occupied by access to capital financing the company’s
development and growth – it is indicated by both 13% of the surveyed female and male
entrepreneurs. The male and female company owners list human management as another
barrier - 9% of women and 11% of men point to this.
Another difficulty, for almost 6% of men and 7% of women, is labour law,which is not flexible enough, and the competition on the part shadow economy.
Identical results were obtained in quantitative surveys conducted among women of a different professional status (entrepreneurs, contract workers, unemployed and inactive in the
labour market) (PAPI I), as part of which the respondents listed barriers in a similar order
(Chart 10).
the rate of answers
Chart 10.
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
What is or was the most difficult when running a company? Female entrepreneurs.
34%
23%
23%
11%
Too high
out-of-salary
labour costs
( taxes/social
insurance fees)
Source:
33%
Filling out
tax and accountancy
forms
Obtaining new
clients
Lack of answers
11%
Access to capital Lack of answers
financing the
company’s
growth
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study. Female entrepreneurs: N = 141.
The most bothersome for them are out-of-salary labour costs (34%) and filling out tax
and accountancy forms (33%).
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The results of the study carried out among women also confirm that apart from bothersome bureaucracy and high costs of running a business activity, the most difficult is obtaining new clients. This barrier is ranked third among women (23% of female entrepreneurs).
Similarly to the study among male and female entrepreneurs, one out of ten female company owners pointed to the difficulties with access to capital financing the company’s development. Among other difficulties affecting running a company female entrepreneurs also
mention lack of sufficient knowledge (11%) as a factor hindering the process of running
a business.
Thus, according to quantitative surveys, entrepreneurs point to fiscal policy and bothersome bureaucracy as the main difficulties. Access to capital is of great significance as well.
Moreover, these barriers equally refer to both men and women.
The above observations, referring to the existence of barriers particularly affecting women
and types of barriers common to all entrepreneurs, are also reflected in qualitative surveys.
The common statement repeating itself in the answers of experienced female entrepreneurs is, obvious for them, that there are no entrepreneurship barriers which can be differentiated in terms of gender, and they even claim that `business is genderless’. According
to women, barriers of running a business activity are common and equal for all entrepreneurs:
„I don’t feel that it is much more bothersome for women, as the rules are the same for men
and women and you have to deal with it”
(a woman running a company since 2005,
in `Building’ section, 12 employees, 2 children);
„barriers are common for everybody. I wouldn’t differentiate between men and women, it is
the same for everybody now. Even, as I told you at the beginning, I think women can do more
now and actually there are more of them in business and they are doing well. ”
(a woman running a company since 2000,
Industrious processing activity’ section, 12 employees).
Generally speaking, the respondents of qualitative surveys listed the barriers which, according to them, are bothersome both to men and women who run a company. The analysis
of the individual statements of experienced female entrepreneurs provides a wider range
of barriers making the company’s growth difficult, though the most frequently mentioned
are the same barriers which were presented in the quantitative surveys.
The confirmation of these conclusions is found in the statements of the respondents of both
qualitative surveys. Both female and male entrepreneurs mainly pay attention to the same
actions of the state, that is fiscal policy, bureaucracy and access to financing, but we also
get familiar with a wider context of these conditions. These actions, though they cause
problems to most of the respondents, are treated as the basic necessity of the way state
and economy function, so they also notice their advantages.
Fiscal policy
Among the actions of the state, which have an influence on the functioning of private companies, the respondents of qualitative surveys, and the men and women asked in quantitative surveys, pay attention to fiscal policy. All the entrepreneurs claim that taxes are too high
89
and too complicated. However, it could be noticed that some of them accept this fact as
an obvious consequence of living in a certain economic structure:
„that’s the rule, all of us ,tax payers, know that every tax is bad and nobody wants to pay
them, not only in our country, so words like taxes, The Tax Office are the things which are
for us like a red rag to a bull, but that’s the reality, the state needs money to build, provide for
schools, kindergartens, hospitals, and so on, our taxes go to all these, especially to education.
We have to, we are responsible, we live in this country, we agreed we would do it and that
should be done of course.”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in Other services activity’ section, 2 employees).
However, some of the respondents see no possibility to influence the changes in this system, so they accept it:
„taxes are always a burden (laughter), but I always repeat: earn so much that you can afford
to pay taxes. They have to exist it’s unavoidable (…) I wouldn’t treat it that way [that it restricts
us], of course it would mean more money, but since we have such a system, we can’t change
much, so we have to think about something else to have money to develop the company. We
also have no influence also. I think that if I can influence something, I can choose whether
develop or not, but it is obligatory then...”’
(a woman running a company since 2000,
in Industrial processing’ section, 12 employees).
Sometimes the entrepreneurs see some possibilities of avoiding paying taxes, but they realise that it is not worth it:
„everyone who has money and has to pay taxes would like to pay as little as possible. I pay
although it pains my heart (…). I simply accept the fact that there are taxes to be paid
and I pay, but… There’s no other choice. You may function in a shadow economy and pay
nothing, but on the other hand everyone wants to live and the taxes must be paid”
(a woman running a company since 1997, in Activity connected with
accommodation and catering services’ section, 16 employees).
The other entrepreneurs find it difficult to accept such high out-of-salary costs (taxes, social
insurance fees). All additional out-of-salary costs, according to entrepreneurs, negatively
influence the process of running a company:
‚‚ do not enable them to pay suitable salaries to employees:
„they should be lower, because we need this, for example I would like to pay my employees
good salaries, better than the national average salary.”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Health care and social security’ section, 10 employees);
90
‚‚
do not enable them to employ people as contract employees:
„as for The Social Insurance Office (ZUS) issue we all know how it works, that’s why I often can
hire my workers and give them a contract for a specific task, it’s not an employment contract
though, it’s not a problem in my company, my employees work in different parts on the city,
not in the headquarters”
(a woman running a company since 2007, in Education’ section,, 2 employees);
‚‚
do not enable them to make desirable profits:
„it’s mostly about ZUS, the fees are very high, too high. It is often the case that the employer
can do nothing, as their revenue will cover company costs like taxes, payments to employees,
ZUS fees, and then leaving no profit”
(a woman running a company since 1994, in `Building’ section, 12 employees).
Sometimes the entrepreneurs emphasise a negative attitude of the Tax Office towards
the entrepreneurs, expressed in lack of trust to company owners and perceiving them as
`thieves’ and `criminals’:
„I also sometimes make bank transfers. If there is a mistake of 20 groszy, they call me to receive the excess, as I paid more tax than I needed, they checked ZUS once again. The checked
my books for the last fiscal year, to transfer my money. And I don’t like it, if we run a business,
the Tax Office treats us as criminals, not like partners. We also pay taxes. I feel like a criminal
sometimes.”
(a woman running a company since 1994,
in Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 3 employees).
Administrative barriers
Similarly to fiscal policy, administration and bureaucracy are perceived as a necessity in certain issues. Although the administrative procedures are bothersome and time-consuming,
some of the respondents admit that certain requirements must be fulfilled by the entrepreneurs so that they could provide reliable services later on. They refer to, among others,
the regulations on safety and work hygiene:
„the requirements should be met by the doctor’s office, I think, it shouldn’t be so that they are
not sterile at all, or just a little, simply there is no protection, no security, no regulations fulfilled
required by Sanepid, Works Standards Office, or other authorities.”
(IDI II a woman running a company since 1996,
in Information and communication’ section, 1 employee).
However, procedures which are too complicated, time-consuming formalities, license/permit issuing, irregularity in the interpretation of labour law make it difficult for the entrepreneurs to run a company. According to them, the current requirements are not adapted to the
actual needs of the entrepreneurs and that is why they are not applicable in practice.
Access to the financing capital
A widely discussed issue was the access to financing capital to develop the company. For
some of the respondents, obtaining financial resources is not very difficult, although they
admit that they rarely use, eg. bank loans, They prefer to act carefully and their activity
and investments are covered financially using their own resources or in the form of leasing:
„banks now offer a wide range of different products and services, so I think the choice is great
and you can use these tools”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees);
„of course, I have access to them, but I don’t use them, most often I take a credit if I buy something bigger, which requires big finances, then I choose leasing and I am happy”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Health care and social security’ section, 10 employees).
91
Another issue is high loan collateral required by banks and difficult to meet by small companies:
„banks are more willing to give credits, but they require very high loan collateral, although
the companies have been in the market for years and haven’t experienced the financial crisis
we’ve been having now. However, leasing companies are open and willing to help.”
(a woman running a company since 1990, in Activity connected with culture,
entertainment and recreation’ section, 225 employees);
„you can say that we are discriminated, because if you have your business and you want
to take a mortgage for example, then the nightmare begins ”
(novice entrepreneurs – a woman).
Obtaining new clients
At present, as the entrepreneurs often refer to, in times of the crisis’ it is getting more difficult to keep the clients or get new ones. In order to obtain new clients you must face enormous competition:
„the number of students is decreasing and I think it is due to increased competition. At
the moment I have more companies around me that I have to compete with than I used
to have a few years ago.”
(a woman running a company since 1996, in `Education’ section, 20 employees);
„at present, when the chain stores force a certain style of work, like the hypermarkets do so
towards small local shops, we are not able to avoid the fact of losing clients, they go to offices
like Metrohouse, or some others, Warsaw agencies start their activity here, from Bydgoszcz
too, which are some type of competition for us, for the young”
(a woman running a company since 2003,
in Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 1 employee).
Dishonest competition
Another problem when running a company is also the so-called dishonest competition
(shadow economy or companies understating drastically the prices of their products or services), which leads to the situation where the entrepreneurs cannot obtain realistic margins
when they sell their products or services:
„In Szczecin we have an interior design department, the usable art was created, lots of young
people graduate every year who have to find their place in the market. How do they do that?
They simply don’t register the company, so they don’t pay ZUS fees, telephone and other
bills, and so on. I don’t know what they do with equipment, surely they manage somehow,
and they offer such low prices that I am not able to keep afloat at this price level”
(a woman running a company since 1997, in Activity connected
with accommodation and catering services’ section, 16 employees, 2 children)
The system of formal education
92
Among widely discussed institutional conditions, the educational system is of great importance, too. According to the entrepreneurs, the present system of education, whether
at school or at university, does not prepare people to start and run a company, does not
develop entrepreneurship attitudes. If there are positive statements made by the entrepreneurs in terms of education in the context of entrepreneurship, they refer to education
at an earlier stage. Generally speaking, there are noticeable disadvantages of the system
of education:
„But when it comes to school education, high school or university, if you don’t graduate from
administration, management, then you have no idea how to start and run a company”
(a woman running a company since 1993, in `Coal mining and mining, 1 employee).
According to the respondents of qualitative surveys, no level of formal education prepares
students to start and run business activity, it rather teaches schematic thinking, which helps
develop the basics of entrepreneurship.
Courses and training
A different opinion is expressed by the entrepreneurs about training courses subsidised
from various sources, in which they participated themselves or sent their employees to. On
these courses they learn about how the company functions (management, accountancy),
or they upgrade their professional qualifications attending specialist courses or trainings
on the particular field in which they run their business activity:
„they [courses and trainings] give a lot and show how to develop a company. They are very
good and enable us to run a company. I also attend them regularly, they show good solutions. Especially that they are free, or subsidised – they helped me a lot. For example, the accountancy course, how to calculate the taxes and so on and I don’t need a bookkeeper any
more. I don’t have to employ other people, I can do it myself.”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Coal mining and mining’ section 1 employee).
In the answers of other entrepreneurs, there were the excessive costs of the currently
offered specialist trainings emphasised, which makes it difficult for them to upgrade their
knowledge and qualifications:
„it used to be possible to go to Warsaw on a training, where they had a hotel for doctors,
the accommodation was cheap. (…) then these trainings were for free. I know we have capitalism in the market, but if I have to pay half of my monthly salary for a week-long training,
it stops to be affordable for me any longer, I need to earn a living too, that’s why I work”
(a woman running a company since 1997,
in `Health care and social security’ section, 1 employee).
Lack of sufficient knowledge
11% of women participating in the study among women of a different professional status
(PAPI I) admitted that the most difficult aspect of running a company is their lack of sufficient knowledge. Qualitative surveys provide detailed information on what kind of knowledge the female entrepreneurs lack.
Women admit that they lack knowledge on the possibilities of obtaining financial resources for development and innovative solutions, they lack knowledge on available training,
eg. dealing with the company management. One of the entrepreneurs could not give
an answer when asked whether it is easy to obtain resources for the company development:
„I don’t know because I didn’t check it, but surely not, what could they give me? What company development? I want a new place for my activity, new equipment or a new car, I have
93
no idea, (…) I think the problem is that nobody told me about these possibilities (…) I didn’t
know I could learn anything and I think that’s the problem.”
(a woman running a company since 1996,
in Information and communication’ section, 1 employee.)
These statements confirm the fact that entrepreneurs do not look for information on their
entrepreneurship support, they are not interested in possibilities of getting help and they do
nothing to improve their situation. The consequence of such attitude is the lack of knowledge on the possibility of support gained during training and courses, which is reflected
in the statements of the respondents.
Access to infrastructure, information, research
One of the most significant conditions of entrepreneurship development is the possibility
of using the latest scientific developments and easy access to information. These spheres
of activities of various public institutions are positively assessed by the entrepreneurs:
„I attend training run by Work Standards and Safety Inspectorate, they have trainings there,
issue bulletins and brochures; besides they aren’t only the controlling institution, they also
give advice, you can ask them anonymously and give a theoretical example of a problem
and you get a solution, though not always, all those regulations are so complicated that it is
not always possible to get a proper solution to the problem”
(a woman running a company since 2007, in Education’ section, 2 employees);
„Besides, we cooperate with NBP (National Bank of Poland), and they do quarterly analyses
at our office. We also have direct access, because I get first-hand information about our local
and national real estate market. We also have access to Polish Real Estate Federation, so we
have a few sources
(a woman running a co many since 1994,
in Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 3 employees).
Sometimes female entrepreneurs pay attention to the lack of the latest technologies
enhancing the development of the companies – not introducing them restricts the competitiveness of the company:
„the disadvantage is that we don’t offer super modern technologies in teaching. Lately, we
have made a big step and introduced an interactive board, we have Internet access, but we
don’t offer e-learning platforms to promote learning”
(a woman running a company since 1996, in Education’ section, 20 employees, 1 child).
A common source of information for entrepreneurs is the Internet, from which they get
the necessary knowledge:
„I will say that we find it easier now than 10 or more years ago, we have now a fantastic
source of information, which is the Internet, we can ask questions and get the answers, find
the information we are looking for, so the number of sources is bigger and we can draw conclusions.”
(experienced entrepreneurs – a man).
94
That is why the lack of access to Internet is regarded as a barrier of entrepreneurship development, which is confirmed by the analysis of desk research (compared to sub chapter 1.1):
„In small towns and villages another problem is the infrastructure, if somebody doesn’t
have access to the Internet or has no computer, then it is the problem, because when you
sit at home, with fields around you, you can hope to come up with an idea for business
activity”
(FGI – novice entrepreneurs – a man).
Barriers which particularly are experienced by female entrepreneurs
In the responses of the female entrepreneurs certain elements of the state policy which
negatively influence female entrepreneurship development appeared. They are connected
with motherhood and caring roles of women, and refer to the issue of institutional care
over children.
According to the respondents – female entrepreneurs, the network of public institutions
of care over small children is not sufficient. There is a lack of widely available access to nurseries and kindergartens, which would enable mothers –entrepreneurs to run a company. In
individual interviews given by the female entrepreneurs attention is paid to the excessive
fees for nurseries and kindergartens:
„I came to my work with my little baby in a pram. There was no public help available for me.
And I must tell you that the situation of women is worse in this respect, as there is little access
to nurseries and kindergartens. You can’t have a dilemma whether the baby-sitter looks after
the baby well and you don’t know what’s going at home. Then you can’t work effectively as
usual, as you worry about what’s going on with your child. Little access to nurseries and kindergartens is a big problem and barrier
(a woman running a co many since 1994,
in Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 3 employees, 2 children).
According to the above statement, another barrier experienced by women in comparison
to men is the issue of combining professional life and family responsibilities. This internal
and external requirements lead to the situation where women have more burdens resulting
from running business activity and at the same time they hold responsibility for the home
and family. It is confirmed by the statement below, made by one of the respondents of the
qualitative survey conducted among experienced female entrepreneurs (IDI):
„[barriers are] identical for everybody. That’s my opinion, maybe because I have such observations from my work, but my family isn’t like this. There are more duties, maybe even more
duties, connected with the family, people are like this: they have to go somewhere and deal
with some problems, run from one office to another, go to school meetings, nobody can replace them. I go there and at the same time I have my deadlines, I can’t switch the phone off.”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees)
Certain difficulties and barriers in running a business activity by women could also be
noticed in the existing stereotypes, showing that the woman’s main role is the care over
the home and children, and the professional activity and career are regarded as an unnecessary whim. This statement of one of the respondents reflects this opinion:
„Women will always be treated a little worse, as less educated, with less knowledge and less
self-esteem. You have to meet an outstanding individual - a woman can manage on her own,
without the help of a man who is an expert in some business filed, and that she could prove
others wrong. There is a stereotype in Poland that the woman must stay at home and look
95
after the children. However, some women make careers and combine them with family life
and that works well. Other women are cunning and calculating and want to make a career
at all cost, and they try very hard and it doesn’t work. Women find it hard everywhere.”
(a woman running a company since 1994,
in `Building’ section, 12 employees, 2 children).
2.3.2. Desirable institutional changes promoting and enhancing
female entrepreneurship
The chapter below presents various postulates issued by female and male entrepreneurs
referring to changes which should be expected to enable them to run their business activity. These postulates should be treated separately from those presented in the chapter 1.6.
Ways of encouraging women to start and develop their own companies. The results presented
there refer to women who do not run business activity and provide answers on the ways
to induce them to do so. The opinions of entrepreneurs on the ways to encourage other
women to start business activity are also described there.
In this chapter there are opinions of business persons presented and in reference to them
the postulates of entrepreneurs were formed which would not help them focus on the
start-up of the company but on its further development.
The consequence of such a division result from the accepted methodology, an appropriate questionnaire and survey form and the scenario of interviews; this concept takes three
stages of entrepreneurship characterised in the analysis of desk research into consideration:
stage one – before making the decision to start business activity, stage two, the phase
in which the decision to start business activity was made and the specific actions were initiated, and stage three, the phase of running and developing the company.
The analysis of barriers connected with running a company highlighted potential changes
which entrepreneurs expect from decision-makers and governing bodies. As the barriers
were equally experienced by both men and women, it should be assumed that female
and male owners of small and middle-size companies will have similar expectations.
The results of the quantitative surveys conducted among female and male entrepreneurs
(PAPI II) confirm our assumptions. The ranking of answers given by men and women referring to ways of entrepreneurship development support development in Poland is the same
as far as both genders are concerned (Table 4).
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Table 4.
What, in your opinion, could help to develop entrepreneurship in Poland? (%) (more than
one answer could be chosen).
Women
N=806
Men N=996
Greater access to capital, eg. loans on preferential terms, easier
access to loans by small companies
84%
85%
Fiscal policy; lower taxes and compulsory insurance fees
93%
94%
Research and development promotion
57%
57%
Easier access to technical infrastructure (cheaper Internet, better road quality...)
78%
76%
Development of care over small children (more places
and cheaper nurseries, kindergartens)
79%
78%
Simplifying the procedures in terms of starting a company
(shorter time of registration, the possibility to register a company via the Internet)
68%
67%
Better public perception of an entrepreneur
65%
66%
N
801
986
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study; lack of statistically important differences,
p<0,05.
Almost all female (93%) and all male entrepreneurs (94%) expect lower taxes and compulsory insurance fees. The second most important factor to develop entrepreneurship,
according to 84% of women and 85% of men, is access to capital, eg. loans on preferential
terms, easier access to loans by small companies.
Further on, they list the development of care over small children (more places and less
expensive nurseries and kindergartens). Here, the rate of answers of the respondents
is almost identical (F: 79%, M: 78%), which is surprising, especially as it is mainly women
who pay attention to this issue. However, male support of this initiative makes the postulate increase its value. It may also signify that men take over part of family and parental
responsibilities.
Better access to technical infrastructure (cheaper Internet, better road quality...) also appears
to be an important aspect of the changes which entrepreneurs expect (F: 78%, M: 76%).
Taking the value of knowledge acquired by entrepreneurs from the Internet into consideration, this postulate is worth emphasising as well.
The bureaucratic barrier, so often emphasised, is also referred to by both women (68%)
and men (67%) in terms of the desirable changes, ie. simplifying the procedures when
the company is started (shorter time of registration, the possibility to register the company
via the Internet).
A relatively high rate of women (65%) and men (66%) would like the public perception
of an entrepreneur to be changed as well. It proves that entrepreneurs have a stereotypical
reputation of being dishonest.
The confirmation of the aforementioned conclusions is found in the qualitative surveys. The
issue of institutional facilities which would support women to start and run business activity is addressed mostly by them, who claim that the facilities directed especially to them
are not necessary:
97
„I personally get annoyed at actions like „Woman, get up and fight for yourself”, as generally
we have to understand that women are such poor things, they need protection and guidance, but it isn’t true. Among my friends there are girls who are courageous and girls who have
two children, take care of them and their homes. In my opinion, through these actions we
show that women are weaker.”
(novice entrepreneurs – a woman).
Fiscal policy
The qualitative surveys confirm the expectation of entrepreneurs referring to lower out-ofsalary costs (taxes and social insurance fees) and the less complex tax system:
„Taxes should surely change. I have always regretted that we can’t employ everyone full-time,
that we often have to work out how to reduce vacancies as the insurance fees are outrageously high. And the biggest problem for me are those fees which I think kill the business
and create the co-called pseudo shadow economy of unemployment. Why in our country
do we invest in the pseudo unemployed instead of spending the money on social insurance fees or lowering these fees. It doesn’t matter if we spend the money on the unemployed
or pension schemes.”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in `Wholesale and retail trade’ section, 2 employees).
Simplification of the procedures
Although with time entrepreneurs notice changes for the better when starting a company
(first, the so-called `one window’, which appeared not to work properly, now a new project
of Ministry of Economy called `no window’, which has yet to be assessed), the system still,
according to them, needs to be improved, the procedures should be shorter and less timeconsuming, the flow of information between the particular institutions should be more
efficient:
„When it comes to one window of information flow between the public institutions, it is very
inefficient, because some time ago the law about partnerships was changed, new, updated
REGON number (the company’s registration number) was given and NIP number (identity
tax number) also updated, and the flow of information from the moment of handing in all
the applying documents in one-window took a long time, which could have been avoided,
shortened somehow”
(a woman running a company since 1990, in `Activity connected
with culture, entertainment and recreation’ section, 225 employee);
„In spite of everything, there are still too many formalities, which aren’t necessary at all. They
should be reduced, all those filling out the forms, running from one office to another. That
would enhance the process greatly.”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in `Coal mining and mining’ section, 1 employee).
System of formal education
98
The imperfections of the educational system in Polish schools contribute to the fact that
entrepreneurs opt for improvements in the system of education aimed at developing
attitudes towards entrepreneurship. It is worth emphasising that more practical classes
in a particular field should become a regular element of the educational system:
„I would surely suggest that the apprenticeship in typical transport companies, typical logistics companies was possible and was real so that transport issues and problems could be
familiarised”
(a woman running a company since 1990, in `Transport’ section, 225 employees);
„more practice should be available, and not only practice in paper work, but the real practical
aspects should be taught and learnt”
(a woman running a company since 1994, in `Building’ section, 12 employees).
Entrepreneurs would also introduce to schools an element of psychology in terms of using
it in business, eg. When negotiating:
„first and foremost, it should be available at all universities which offer faculties where you
are likely to run business activity, for example, architecture, tourism; communicative skills
and abilities should be developed on how to negotiate with clients. So, there should be basics
of psychology learnt at university, like client recognition, negotiating skills and so forth.”
(a woman running a company since 1997, in `Activity connected
with accommodation and catering services’ section, 16 employees).
Entrepreneurs would also opt for introducing classes on the rules of starting and running
a company, the rules of marketing and functioning in the market:
„at the end of your studies, for example, at the final year, there should be some classes introduced on how to run a business, so that young people would know where to go, who to speak
to, how to get help, and not only rely on themselves and their parents. These classes would
help you get to know what to do and how to get round it all.”
(a woman running a company since 1994,
in `Activity connected with real estate services;3 employees).
Attention is also paid to the fact that young people should have the contact with business
practices at school and university:
„we should start to promote entrepreneurship at least at universities and schools of higher
education. But, it would be good if the classes weren’t run by teachers who only had some
trainings to teach the subject, but by practitioners who have achieved success. Or people
connected with business should be invited to such classes and meetings and provide their
personal experiences and prove that you can achieve anything you want, people like these
should run the training.”
(a woman running a company since 2008,
in `Wholesale and retail trade’ section, 2 employees).
Consultancy
Among the postulates promoting entrepreneurship development, the respondents also
pointed to consultancy for the active businesses, which would enable them to prepare
the company’s development plans, advise on the issue of new ideas and investments,
introduce new ideas into the market, provide information on available sources of financing
and subsidies. Consultancy centres, according to the respondents, should be in all administrative districts, tax offices and other institutions with which present and future entrepreneurs have contact. Consultancy should also be appropriately tailored for small companies:
„I have an idea - a consulting company, I present them my business concept, they examine
99
it in terms of its market potential, and they would tell me if there’s any point in starting a company like this”
(former entrepreneurs – a man);
„for example, there should be addresses provided for people who establish new companies,
a catalogue of entrepreneurs, so meting like this.”
(former entrepreneurs – a man).
Better public perception of an entrepreneur Similarly to the quantitative surveys, the owners of small and middle-size companies would like their perception as entrepreneurs
to change for the better:
“Well, I think that there should be more openness to business persons, the state should be
more open so there is no suspicions that if you get a subsidy or some equipment, you cheat
and you are dishonest. I think there is no trust to an employer like that. I see it that way,
simply.”
(a woman running a company since 1994, in `Activity connected with real estate services;
section, 3 employees).
Better access to institutional care over children Similarly to the quantitative surveys, individual interviews of female entrepreneurs confirm that there is a need to improve institutional
care over children, that is greater access to nurseries and kindergartens, also the company
nurseries and kindergartens. Women sometimes suggested that there should be subsidies
introduced and activated, also those especially directed to them:
„for those who are 35 years old or more, for those (…) in the prime time of their lives, when
they have no successes so far and don’t know what to do now, that would be motivating.”
(FGI - former entrepreneurs, a woman).
2.3.3. Plans in terms of running a company from the perspective
of men and women
Analysing the intentions of women in terms of running business activity, two key problems
were considered.
On the one hand, it was tested what the plans of female entrepreneurs were (compared
to the intentions of male entrepreneurs) regarding their companies – whether they were
planning further development of the company or they were focused on surviving in the
market. On the other hand, there were the intentions of female non-entrepreneurs analysed – whether they were planning to start business activity and what would encourage
them to take such a step.
Analysing the phenomenon of entrepreneurship, it is important to examine the development potential of companies, that is whether the enterprise has a long-term strategy
of development or is planning to develop itself in the near future and what the development would be like (employing new workforce, expanding the supply market, introducing
new products and services).
100
In the light of this study, it is crucial to compare the development plans of companies run
by men and women. In the study conducted among male and female entrepreneurs (PAPI
II), the respondents were asked whether they have a strategy of actions. The answers given
by company owners of both genders were almost identical (Table 5).
Table 5.
Is there a strategy of actions in your company?
No
Yes, in the written
form
Yes, in the unwritten
form
Women N=806
43,9%
17,2%
36,8%
Men N= 996
44,3%
16,7%
37,7%
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study.
The strategy of actions is devised by a little more than half of companies run by women
(54%) and by men (54%). Only in about 17% of all the companies the strategy is formulated
in the written form.
The vast majority of the surveyed entrepreneurs, who participated in the quantitative survey carried out among female and male company owners (PAPI II), have plans of development for the next 5 years (Table 6). Female and male entrepreneurs indicated most often
that they were planning to obtain new clients in the nearest future (women 92%, men 89%)
as well as increase the sales of their products and services in their country (women 80%,
men 78%). A little more than half of the respondents of both gender (F: 57%, M: 54%) are
going to expand their companies by means of employing new workforce. About half of the
surveyed entrepreneurs are intending to invest in new technologies and upgrade the qualifications of their employees by sending them to training courses. These results point to the
fact that there are no discrepancies in the development plans of companies run by both
men and women.
At the same time, as many as 28% of respondents claimed that they are only focused on surviving in the market and maintain the present status of their company, which appears to be
a rather careful strategy aiming at no company development in the next 5 years.
Table 6.
What are the development plans of your company for the next 5 years?
Women
N=801
Men
N=986
Obtaining new suppliers
48%
43%
Obtaining new clients
92%
89%
Increasing the sales of the products and services in the country
80%
78%
Increasing the sales of the products and services abroad
31%
26%
Investing in new technologies
52%
51%
Upgrading the qualifications of the present employees (courses, trainings)
50%
51%
Employing new workforce
57%
54%
Maintaining the position of the company on the market
28%
28%
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study.
The conclusions of the quantitative surveys confirm the individual interviews of female
entrepreneurs. The opinions of the respondents allow to familiarise with the context
of development planned by them.
101
The companies run by women have long-term strategies:
„yes, [we have] a five-year strategy, it’s coming to and end soon, our first strategy. I think that
the next plan will also include 5 years of actions. I believe that such planning into the future
is the basics of the company’s organisation. Thus, we have to set goals. There must be some
options and alternatives, and I think that such strategies are essential to achieve success.”
(a woman running a company since 2006,
in ‘Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 32 employees).
They often have detailed and specific plans referring to the further development of their
business activity. They are planning to purchase additional equipment so that they could
introduce new services:
„probably yes, it’s tied to our plans to change cars, our main investment is into cars (…) I’m
planning to buy a truck (in order – eg. J. M.) to develop my company of course and introduce
a new category of services, that means more clients, more work for my employees (…) I want
to enter new markets, try to expand my activity into new regions.”
(a woman running a company since 1993,
in ‘Other services activity’ section, 4 employees).
Sometimes, female entrepreneurs plan to expand the supply market by means of increasing the number of the company’s branches.
„I think that is really possible, it is my dream to expand my company and have branches out
to Polish cities to have regional offices. I think it is doable in the next few years, you just need
to make more effort and invest a little”
(a woman running a company since 2006,
in ‘Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 32 employees).
Others, though, would like to introduce a new, additional range of services, different from
the present activity:
„apart from investing in the company, I will try to expand my activity more into trade. I won’t
abandon my present activity, but trade is also my focus. I dream of having a florist’s, a chain
of them, as I have taken a florist’s course”
(a woman running a company since 2004,
in ‘Professional, scientific and technical’ section, 2 employees).
Similarly to the quantitative surveys, the qualitative surveys also prove that some female
companies adopt the strategy of survival in the market. Those not willing to develop their
companies explain that their financial rating is too low or the economic situation is not
favourable:
„[Investment plans would be supported by] a stable situation in the market. I run my company at home, as then the costs are much lower. Hiring office space is outrageously expensive and even the rent for a small room may be too much . When you work at home, it’s hard
to develop your company. It’s a vicious circle, somehow. I can’t hire office space, as I don’t
know whether I will have clients. It’s not that stage yet, with clients, payments, I can’t develop
yet’”
(a woman running a company since 2004,
in ‘Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, 2 employees).
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Summarising the chapter on the conditions of entrepreneurship, it should be emphasised that generally there are no significant determinants which have a greater influence
on female entrepreneurship than on male entrepreneurship.
Analysing the effects of cultural norms and traditional socialisation on female entrepreneurship, the change in the attitude of the public towards women as entrepreneurs is noticeable. While the cultural norm perceive women as mothers and wives taking care of their
children in the first stage of their lives more often than their husbands, it stops to be valid
in reference to women being attached only to household responsibilities. According to the
analysis of the respondents’ answers, the gender stereotypes emphasising the cultural differences between men and women are gradually becoming weaker, although there are still
noticeable differences in biological terms.
The entrepreneurs also assessed the most important features characterising persons running business activity. Both female and male respondents participating in the quantitative
surveys paid the greatest attention to industriousness, patience, creativity and innovativeness. The attitude to taking risks, examined among female and male entrepreneurs, did also
not indicate statistically significant discrepancies between the genders.
One of the main objectives of the study was to identify the barriers experienced by Polish
entrepreneurs at present. All things considered, it should be emphasised that the results
of the studies showed that there are no crucial differences between men and women
in their attitude to the barriers of entrepreneurship. For business persons of both genders
the greatest difficulty were too high out-of-salary labour costs (32% of women , 30% of men
– PAPI II), complex administrative procedures (28% of women , 30% of men – PAPI II) as well
as obtaining new clients (30% of women, 28% of men).
Only the particular barriers which affect women in comparison to men and resulted from
the analysis of the respondents’ statements as part of the qualitative surveys (FGI i IDI) are
the consequences of the necessity to combine family and professional responsibilities, thus
in this case the barrier is the lack of appropriate access to common and cheap institutional
care over small children.
Generally speaking, women do not expect special facilities addressed only to them. Similarly to male entrepreneurs, they would like to pay lower taxes, deal with official business
matters in a faster and easier way and sent their child to a kindergarten when there is no
family support. Therefore, there should be business incubators for all business subjects
(women and men) established; at the same time there should be nurseries and kindergartens arranged nearby, which would enable women, at the same level as men, to undertake
business activity or establish their own company.
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Chapter IV.
Running business activity vs family life
The studies conducted so far (Chapter I) indicated that women’s situation in the labour
market confirms the thesis on treating female work resources as unfavourable (being
in an unfavourable situation). It is attributed to by both stereotypical perception of women
in the society and a traditional attitude to the social roles of both genders, and insufficient
support for combining professional and family duties in terms of institutional and family
systems.
Family duties, especially caring responsibilities, reduce women’s chances of employment
due to the employers’ worries about the job flexibility of working mothers. Thus, the question arises – Does undertaking self-employment by women and using their resourceful
features in the professional life allow for greater flexibility in attitude towards professional and family duties and promote changes in the family model? The present researchers
examining the issue92 pointed to the necessity to combine professional and family duties by
most women running their own companies; this barrier is difficult to overcome and results
from the excessive or inclusive burden of family responsibilities and lack of equality in terms
of the household duties division among men and women.
In the process of the discussed study the following hypothesis was formulated: Running
business activity has an influence on combining family duties and professional
responsibilities and the attempt to verify that was made by posing the following research
questions:
1. What is the hierarchy of life values of men and women running their own companies compared to the unemployed / inactive or contract employees?
2. What characteristics of the professional activity are the most important for women running their business activity (eg. independence in making decisions, good salary, contacts
with interesting people, the possibility of organising your own time and so forth)?
3. What features of self-employment reduce the satisfaction of running your own company?
4. Does running your own business influence the matrimonial and procreational plans
of female entrepreneurs?
5. How does running business activity by women affect the amount of time they devote
to family duties and their organisation ?
6. What is the preferable and realised family model by female entrepreneurs?
7. How is the issue of care over small children and other dependable persons solved in the
families of women running a company?
8. What solutions would enable women running a business activity to combine family
and professional duties?
104
92
Janowska, Z. (2006) The national system of monitoring equal treatment of men and women. Expertise reports, vol. 1,
Wydawnictwo Naukowe Scholar, Warsaw
1. The hierarchy of life values vs attitudes towards
the entrepreneurship among men and women
running their own companies.
The accepted life values decide both on the thought and behaviour. That is why it could
be expected that they influence the attitudes towards entrepreneurship. Their hierarchy
is developed significantly under the influence of environmental factors, including various
processes which very often reflect the different systems of values of men and women93.
Table 1.
The values of men and women running their own companies, considered important
and very important (%).
Men
N=996
Women
N=806
Satisfying professional career
94,0
94,3
Money, material goods
80,7
82,6
Good health
94,7
95,5
Happy relationship / marriage
90,7
86,1
Children
95,3
92,6
Friends
90,6
92,4
Faith, religion
59,0
60,7
Honesty
95,8
96,3
Pleasure
85,2
87,1
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study.
Among the basic values, listed as widely acceptable94, the respondents running their own
companies were asked to assess the values both directly connected with work and connected only with family life and their leisure time.
Among the surveyed group there were no significant discrepancies in the assessment
of the values mentioned by men and women95. None of these values was more often considered to be less important or unimportant then to be important or very important.
The most important value mentioned by the respondents was honesty, and the least significant was faith and religion.
Of crucial significance is the fact that men and women running their own business activities did not differ in terms of values connected with family life, work and money – which
appeared to be identical in the case of other studies (eg. in the „Social diagnosis” mentioned
above or in CBOS studies referring to life values of Polish society96). That is what a male
respondent running his own company stated:
„What’s the point of having loads of money, and not having a family, there’s no real foundation and money can’t buy it.”
(experienced entrepreneurs).
93
Czapiński, J., Panek, T. (red) (2010) Social Diagnosis 2009, Warsaw, pages 195–199, http://www.diagnoza.com [available: 19th July, 2011].
94 See eg. Social Diagnosis, questionaires 2009, http://www.diagnoza.com/pliki/kwestionariusze_instrukcje/kwestionariusze_2009.pdf and „What is the most important in life?” – a statement of studies BS/77/2006, CBOS, Warsaw
2006.
95 As was presented in methodological chapter, the statistical gravity was accepted at the level of 0,05.
96 Czapiński, J., Panek, T. (red.) Social Diagnosis 2009, p. 195 – 199.
105
The study conducted among women of a different professional status (PAPI I) enabled
to compare the above assessment of life values.
Table 2.
The values of women of different professional status, considered important and very
important (%).
Women
entrepreneurs
N=141
Women-contract
employees
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
women N= 347
Satisfying professional career
92,2
92,2
93,0
Money, material goods
78,7
79,5
81,0
Good health
89,4
91,4
94,8
Happy relationship / marriage
90,1
90,6
93,7
Children
89,4
88,5
91,1
Friends
92,2
89,6
92,8
Faith, religion
52,1
61,9
63,4
Honesty
88,6
89,1
92,2
Pleasures
81,6
87,4
89,0
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study.
The assessment of the above life values by the respondents in all three groups appeared
to be connected with the professional status, although only to a relatively small degree.
However, there is a greater co-relation between these assessments and the activeness in the
labour market (regardless of the fact whether the respondents worked as contract employees or were self-employed) or lack of this activeness (unemployed and inactive women).
None of these values were assessed higher by female entrepreneurs than by professionally inactive women. The differences were the least significant in terms of satisfying
careers and having friends (less than 1 point), and the most distinctive were in the case
of faith and religion – the values least often regarded as important and very important by
the respondents in all three groups, regardless of the professional status. The unemployed
and inactive respondents, more often than female contract employees, considered such
values as pleasure and good health to be very significant.
Compared to contract employees, the assessment of values by female entrepreneurs differed in a smaller degree.
The values assessed by the entrepreneurs as important and very important are having children and friends, so the ones not connected with their professional life. However, the least
significant value for the entrepreneurs was faith and religion.
2. The most crucial advantages and disadvantages
of a professional career
Running your own company is often perceived as a solution meeting particular and varied needs of the persons who decide to start their own business activity. This subject was
described already in chapter III. Here, though, it is worth paying attention to the fact whether, and to what degree, the features of self-employment are connected with the issue
of combining family and professional responsibilities.
106
In the examined group of men and women running their own business, there were no
significant discrepancies. Female entrepreneurs slightly more often pointed to the factors which enable them to combine having a career and having a family – the possibility
to work at home and flexible working hours:
„ (...) I decide, I can plan my holidays, save some money for a rainy day, like when my child
is sick or there’s some kind of emergency, I can plan all this, it’s possible to combine everything”.
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
Male entrepreneurs slightly more often than women regarded the prestige and respect
associated with their job and career as very important.
Chart 1.
The advantages of self-employment (important or very important) (%).
86,3
93,9
respect, prestige
51,3
49
the possibility to work at home
78,5
75,7
flexible working hours
90
89,8
the stability of employment
70,1
70,4
work suitable to education and qualifications
the possibility of self-development
90
88,8
high salary
90
88,9
91,3
87,7
lack of pressure and stress, nice atmosphere
women N=806
men
Source:
N=996
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
90 100
Independent study of the basis of PAPI II study.
Both in the case of men and women the frequency of indicated features as important
or very important depended on the professional status of the respondents before starting the currently run company (lack of statistically important differences, p<0,05). As for
the entrepreneurs who had had a company before – both men and women, – only two
out of eight the aforementioned advantages of having a career were not considered to be
important or very important. Half of this group of respondents regarded the possibility
to work at home as rather unimportant or completely unimportant; most of these opinions
were expressed by men. However, the respondents working as contract employees or students– both men and women – compared to previous company owners paid more attention to the possibility to work at home (respectively: 55% and 33%).
The results of the study conducted among women of a different professional status provided information on how the current status on the market has an influence on the attitudes
towards self-employment and contract work.
107
Table 3.
The advantages of having a company (one answer possible) (%).
Women
entrepreneurs
N=141
Women-contract
employees
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
women N= 347
Good salary, better financial situation
25
26
24
Good atmosphere at work, contact
with people
0
0
6
Independence in making decisions
0
13
29
The possibility to organise your
time
13
18
19
Easier combining professional
and family duties than when working for `somebody else’
0
16
7
Satisfaction with creating new
things and the sense of achievement and success
0
4
0
The stability of employment
0
1
0
The possibility to realise your ideas,
dreams
26
5
0
Great independence and flexibility
in terms of the choice how to do
your job and run the company
24
9
9
Greater satisfaction than when
working for somebody
0
8
3
Other advantage
12
0
3
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
The women working as contract employees and inactive in the market perceived selfemployment relatively often (Table 3 above) as a solution enabling them to organise their
own time and – which was not accepted by female entrepreneurs at all – enabling them
to combine professional and family duties.
Similarly, in the qualitative surveys women pointed to the possibility to organise their own
time and independence in this respect as crucial advantages of self-employment:
„The time of my work, that’s a great benefit for me. It’s kind of a luxury, and apart from that,
it’s the holidays, nobody will tell me whether I can have a day off, go on holiday or have Christmas off (...)”
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
On the other hand, the unemployed and inactive women pointed to independence in making decisions as the most significant advantage of working on one’s own – this feature
was also not important for women running their own company. Among the entrepreneurs,
26% marked the possibility to realise your own ideas and dreams as crucial (not noticed by
the unemployed and inactive women), and 24% of them emphasised the great independence and flexibility in terms of the choice how to do the job and run the company.
108
Similarly, the potential entrepreneurs opted for the basic advantages of self-employment connected with a wide range of independence and flexibility, which enables them
to combine professional and family roles. To the question: What does running your own
business give you?, the answers were the following:
„...[independence] in terms of time, mostly
(a man);
„...when you have reliable and trustworthy employees, you can have 2 days off
(a man);
Although the stability of employment being crucial in terms of the responsibility for
the family and financial situation does not appear in the quantitative surveys as an advantage of self-employment, it was pointed to by the respondents of the qualitative surveys:
„What does the company give us? The sense of stability, even when I get pregnant, there is still
a place I can come back to.”
(a woman, future entrepreneurs).
Women of a different professional status also assessed the advantages and disadvantages
of working for somebody else’.
Table 4.
The advantages of the contract work (% - more than one answer possible).
Detailed list
Women entrepreneurs N=141
Women-contract employees
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
women N= 347
Entitlements (paid holiday and sick
leaves, gratuity, notice period
and so forth)
18
30
30
Restricted range of responsibilities, after leaving the office I don’t
worry about the issues at work
23
18
18
Easier combining professional
and family duties than when running a company
15
13
9
The regularity of income
29
31
33
The particular range of working
hours, overtime paid for additionally
15
7
9
Other advantage
0
1
1
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
Regardless of the professional status of women assessing the contract work, the most
noticeable advantage of working for ‘somebody else’ was the regularity of income, which
was indicated by one out of three respondents. The social entitlements of workers were
important for 30% of working as contract employees, the unemployed and inactive in the
market. The female entrepreneurs pointed to this advantage less often. They opted for such
factors as the restricted range of responsibilities and the fact that they do not have to think
about work issues after leaving their workplace (25% compared to 18% in other groups).
These conditions may also influence one’s work - family relationship in terms of time spent
with the family and its quality97.
Moreover, the female employers, compared to women of a different professional status,
believe that the contract work enables to combine family and professional duties easier
than in the case of self-employment.
97
The research on the work conditions in the EU countries, conducted on a regular basis by The European Fund
on the Improvement of Work and Life Conditions indicate that there is an increasing destructive influence of stress
connected with the professional activity on the life outside work. See: http://www.eurofound.europa.eu/areas/
industrialrelations/ dictionary/definitions/STRESSATWORK.htm [available: 3rd July, 2011].
109
The differences in the conditions of contract work and running your own company are also
noticeable in terms of disadvantages of being self-employed.
Table 5.
The main disadvantages of the contract work („for somebody else”) (%) (one answer possible).
Women
entrepreneurs
N=141
Women-contract
employees
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
women N= 347
Too low salary
35
38
33
The necessity to be responsible
to the boss, hierarchy
27
25
25
The necessity to work at certain
time and place
17
9
12
Lack of flexibility in making independent decisions
11
14
13
Lack of freedom in realising your
own ideas
10
12
13
Other disadvantage
0
2
4
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
The salary that is too small and the necessity to be responsible to the boss (hierarchy) are
among the most important disadvantages of working for `somebody else’.
Female entrepreneurs, compared to those working as contract employees, regarded
the rigid framework of time and place as a significant disadvantage of working for `somebody else’, although they did not appreciate the possibility to organise their own time so
much in terms of advantages of self-employment.
Similarly, the assessment of disadvantages of the contract work, made in the research,
points to the considerable concurrence of opinions, regardless of the professional status
of the respondents.
110
Table 6. The disadvantages of running a company (one answer possible) (%).
Women
entrepreneurs
N=141
Women-contract
workers
N=868
Unemployed
and inactive
women N=347
The necessity to work more than
8 hours a day
23
22
22
The bigger risk of wrong decisions
compared to contract work
10
5
6
The necessity to deal with business
matters/ contact with different
public offices, keeping tax documentation
24
18
18
Lack of regular and safe income,
especially in the first stage of running a company
21
21
22
Lack of security on the market
10
14
13
Taking financial and legal responsibility for yourself and the employees
10
14
14
The necessity of constant knowledge upgrading in different fields
of activity
2
3
3
Other disadvantage
0
3
2
Detailed list
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
When we consider those disadvantages of running a company, which are strongly connected with forming the relation between work and family life – regardless of their professional
status – women most often mention:
‚‚ the necessity to work more than 8 hours a day, which is reflected in the statistics on work
time98 especially in the case of employers hiring employees;
‚‚ lack of regular and safe income, especially in the first stage of the company growth;
and the factor strongly connected with the time devoted to both spheres of life, in particular with too much time devoted to dealing with business matters, contact with public offices, keeping tax and ZUS (social insurance fees) documentation.
The long working hours of the entrepreneurs is the factor identified in the qualitative surveys by the respondents as strongly restricting the possibility to combine family and professional lives:
„ (...) I don’t take some freelance assignments because then I would have to work till 8 p.m.,
and when I leave work between 5 and 6 p.m. then I have time for my children”
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
As it was indicated before, female entrepreneurs, compared to women of a different professional status, regarded the possibility to organise their own time as an advantage of being
self-employed less often. It is connected with the responsibility they took for the enterprise
they run:
„(...) I work full-time, I have company telephone, I just switch it off and that’s it. When I go
on holiday, having my own company, I never switch it off just in case anything happens,
when I come back there is fiscal control, I need to go there and deal with it”
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
98
GUS (2011) The economic activeness of Polish population, IV quarter of 2010, Warsaw, tables 2.8-2.10.
111
Women working as contract employees as well as the unemployed and inactive, compared to female entrepreneurs, more often regard running business activity as a solution
restricting their sense of security in the labour market, that is less stable (contract employees – 14%, unemployed and inactive in the market- 13%), although such an opinion was
also expressed by one out of ten female entrepreneurs. On the other hand, female entrepreneurs, more often than other groups of women, accept as a disadvantage of running
a business not only the necessity to deal with business matters in public offices (which
shows the real nuisance of these activities when running a company), but they also mention the danger connected with the responsibility for the decisions made, which to a certain degree is associated with the restricted sense of security in the labour market and the
sense of responsibility for their own decisions (entrepreneurs – 10%, contract employees
and inactive on the market – 14% each). These worries are justified by the fact that about
90% of companies in our country closed down within the first year of their activity.
This issue was expanded on in the statements given in the qualitative studies:
„ (...) I can’t be sure that I will earn my living, the risk is involved all the time, you have to pay
the social insurance fees, and (…) we work for somebody, we have children, we pay our
employees and we run the risk of not earning enough or nothing at all”
(a woman, former entrepreneur);
„I would willingly do something myself, I come and I have a guarantee (…) here I need to do
my job, you work 7 days a week and sometimes there are weeks of no work unfortunately, so
there is a danger, and you work, think and act differently when you feel the security of work.”
(a woman, former entrepreneur).
3. Running a company vs matrimonial and procreational plans of female entrepreneurs
The decision about undertaking self-employment is made at different stages of life. Some
of the entrepreneurs make such a decision when their family life is stable, others face
the decision about personal matters when they undertake such activity or already run it.
The majority of female and male entrepreneur participated in the quantitative survey
(PAPI II) – 71,7% of women and 72,9% of men – remained in a marriage or partner relationship at the time of the study. A little over than 18% were single (spinsters or bachelors),
a higher rate of female (8,1%) than male entrepreneurs (5,6%) were divorced or remained
in separation. Among the `single’ persons there also were 1,8% of widows and widowers.
In the examined population the majority had children; one out of five entrepreneurs was
childless (22,4% of women and 22,7% of men). The dominant family model was the one
with a low number of children; on average, the number of children in the families of the
women was 1,44 and 1,46 in the families of men (respectively 1,87 i 1,91 in the households
with children).
The study focused on familiarising with the situations connected with having children
requiring care of adults. The biggest group included children at the age of 8 – 12 years old
(34, 6% of the respondents – entrepreneurs had such children), then children at the age
of 0 – 3 years old (27,8%) and at the kindergarten age, ie. 4 – 7 years old (22,9%). Most sur112
veyed entrepreneurs (65, 8%) realised the model with children; 65,8% expressed no intention of having more children in the future. However, one out of three respondents (both
women – 31,6% and men – 33,3%) was planning to make their family bigger.
Now we will analyse the statements referring to the family situation of women of a different
professional status, that is women working on different employment contracts (contract
employees – not running a business activity), entrepreneurs (women running such activity)
and women who are unemployed and inactive in the labour market. The majority of the
respondents in each group remained in a marriage or partner relationship (respectively:
70,1%, 67,%, 73,1%). The group of single women (unmarried) was relatively bigger among
entrepreneurs (22,3%) than contract employees (20,8%) and the unemployed and inactive
(15,8%). Women working as contract employees, the unemployed and inactive mostly had
children already. Among this group of respondents the most noticeable were female entrepreneurs; over half of them (53,4%) had no children.
On average, the respondents who did not work have the biggest number of children (1,36),
the contract employees had fewer children (1,13) and among the entrepreneurs the average number of children was 0,9. However, exclusively in the households with children
the highest average number of them was among the entrepreneurs (2,33), then among
inactive in the market (1,94) and the contract employees (1,72).
As far as children under the age of 3, the discrepancies are even bigger. The female entrepreneurs had on average half as many as such children in their households (0,15 compared
to about 0,3 in other two groups).
The differences in the number of children may result from the age difference of particular
groups of the surveyed women; the oldest women work as contract workers (the average age in this group is just over 37 years old, median 38 years old), and the youngest are
the entrepreneurs (the average 32,7 years old, median 32 years old). The inactive women
were on average 35,2 years old with median at the level of 36 years old. It can be assumed
that the process of extending their families is not finished yet for some of the entrepreneurs. It is the group who expresses procreational intentions (65%) more often than others:
the contract workers - 42,4%, and the unemployed and inactive in the market - 30,4%.
The procreational plans and their fulfilment depend on many factors. It can be assumed
that one of the determinants restricting the fulfilment of these plans among young women
is the disadvantages of running business activity. It also results from the statements given
by female entrepreneurs in the process of the qualitative surveys (IDI i FGI).
In their statements the respondents both referred to their own situation:
„it has a negative effect on the expansion of my family, which I regret”
(a woman running a company since 1996, 20 employees, section P,
one child to provide for), and they expressed more general opinions:
„ young people face this problem, the professional career first, then children, ( …) or they
restrict the number of children not to have the problem; now many women postpone being
mothers until it’s too late”
(a woman running a company since 1995, 1 employee,
`Industrial processing’ section, no children to provide for).
113
These problems result from overlapping two spheres of women’s life : starting both business activity and family life. According to future entrepreneurs, the best moment to start
a business is when you are young, but only when:
„you can still take risks, when there are no responsibilities”
(a woman, future entrepreneurs).
The relations between running business activity and the decisions connected with family
life can also have positive connotations. It depends on the prosperity of the company:
„It all depends on the condition of the company. If we have as many resources, then we can
develop ourselves and have children (...) Many female entrepreneurs have four children,
I have three myself”.
(a woman running a company since 2008, 2 employees,
`Other services activity’ section, one child to provide for).
Moreover:
„woman needs this kind of security when she wants to have (more) children, she feels that she
has a secured stability at work, a place to come back to when she decides to have a child ”
(a woman running a company since 1993, 2 employees,
`Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, no children to provide for).
Independence and the possibility to make decisions about the place and time of work are
the factors positively affecting the decision about having a child:
„when you have maternity plans, self-employment is an ideal situation, if I worked full-time,
I would have to work 7 or 8 hours (…) now I have a design office at my home
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
Self-employment favours the decisions connected with family life, as in the case of contract
work there is a fear whether:
„(...) I will be fired, whether they won’t look at me suspiciously.”
(a woman, future entrepreneurs).
The relationships between running business activity and family life were perceived by
the respondents in a broader context. This form of the mother’s economic activity influences the process of upbringing, teaches the children how to be independent and responsible,
sets an example for young people to follow, as:
„what can she [the woman] teach her children when she stays at home all the time? Sitting
at home?”
(a man, future entrepreneurs).
3.1. Running a business activity by a woman vs the amount
and management of the time devoted to family responsibilities
The majority of the surveyed entrepreneurs (66,3%) agrees with the opinion that running
business activity restricts the time devoted to family responsibilities; 17% of them stated
that undertaking such activity did not affect the amount of time devoted to family duties.
Only one out of ten respondents noticed changes in terms of having more time to perform
household duties (10,7%).
114
Running business activity also restricts the time devoted to care over children. It was indicated by 48,2% of all respondents and 65,7% of those having children (regardless of age).
According to 13,4% (18,3% with children), there was no such co-relation, and 6,2% (8,4%
with children) admitted that they could devote more time to look after the children .
Gender did not differentiate significantly the opinions about the co-relation between running business activity and fulfilling family responsibilities. At the same time, slightly more
women than men (respectively 7% and 5%) pointed to the fact that running their own
company enables them to spend more time taking care of the children, and more women
than men (50% compared to 46%) agreed that it results in spending less time looking after
the children. The others claimed that running business activity did not influence the time
devoted to household duties, including the care over children. To determine the statistical
gravity of discrepancies in the rates of answers given to the questions about the influence
of running business on the time devoted to family life, the hypothesis on lack of differences
in divisions by means of non-parameter chi-square test for independent test sample was
examined. The results confirmed that both female and male entrepreneurs gave identical
answers to these two questions.
A broaden diagnosis of the issue was based on the results of the qualitative surveys conducted on the basis of the individual in-depth interviews with the female entrepreneurs.
They noticed both positive and negative aspects of their situation:
„(...) a person is more flexible in terms of the family life, but the minus is that you need more
time that 8 hours a day to run a company (a woman running a company since 2000, 12
employees, `Industrial processing’ section, no children to provide for); „running business activity I have a choice, today I have to work till 6 p.m., as NFZ (the National Health System)
requires, and apart from that I can organise my time myself so that it is convenient for me. If
I want to work 5 hours a day, 5 days a week, then I work so, if I want to work 7 hours a day, 4
days a week, then I choose this option”
(a woman running a company since 2004, 2 employees,
`Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, no children to provide for);
„I can spend more time working one day . On the other day – take care of my home and family, and that’s a big advantage”
(a woman running a company since 2003, 1 employee,
`Activity connected with real estate services’ section, no children to provide for).
The restriction in time devoted to work results sometimes from the need to take care of the
family, it is the consequence of decisions and choices made:
„I could earn more, but I don’t take some assignments” [to have more time for my children]
– BBP
(a woman, experienced entrepreneurs).
The female entrepreneurs pay less attention to the time devoted to running a company
and family responsibilities, they are more focused on how to organise the time to fulfil
the responsibilities resulting from both spheres of life.
That could be achieved, in their opinion, by the appropriate organisation of the day and time
management adapted to particular situations. They refer to it in the following way:
115
„The responsibilities [connected with work and family] – BBP were never a problem for me,
I always organised them so that they didn’t collide with anything(…) when you are organised then the question of combining work with family life is not a problem”
(a woman running a company since 2000, 12 employees,
`Industrial processing’ section, no children to provide for);
„when you have no problems with time management, then you are able sometimes to run
your business activity (…) without sacrificing a lot”
(a company since 1981, 2 employees,
`Wholesale and retail trade’ section, no children to provide for).
The female respondents associate these abilities with particular personality features, which
contribute to good organisation in professional and family life:
„it seems that you need to have a suitable personality, which translates both at work and in
the family”
(a company since 1996, 1 employee,
`Information and communication’ section, no children to provide for).
Generally speaking, the opinions on the co-relation between the time devoted to running
one’s own company and the family life are diverse. They depend on:
‚‚ The phase of family development. The entrepreneurs with adult, or at least „grown up”
children perceive these issues differently than women with bigger caring responsibilities over the small children. The answer to the question whether it is difficult to combine family and professional duties is:
„very difficult (…) when a woman has a child under 5 years old, then it’s very difficult, especially when there is no immediate care over the child; what’s worse, I missed so much when
I couldn’t bring my child up myself, no woman deserves this [the child was looked after by
a baby-sitter]
(a woman running a company since 1996, 20 employees,
`Education’ section, 1 child to provide for).
Another female entrepreneur draws attention to the emotional distance between the mother and the child:
„... my mother-in-law takes care of him, but sometimes when I get home he gets offended,
says that he doesn’t love me anymore”
(a woman running a company since 1994, 3 employees,
`Activity connected with real estate services’ section, 2 children to provide for).
A small child requires more attention and direct contact:
„... if the children are small, then there are some difficulties, because you have to go here for
an hour, take something there, bring here, and children need mum and dad and contact
with them (…) I think when they’re small, (…), it should be possible for women to stay with
their children. (…) when the children go to the kindergarten, (…) we should work when they
are there, and then spend as much time as possible with the child, so that they don’t feel
the absence of the parents ”
(a woman running a company since 1993, 10 employees,
`Health care and social security’ section, 1 child to provide for).
116
‚‚
The field of the activity and stages of its development. The respondents draw attention
to this:
„... it depends on the activity, you can run your business at home, be your own accountant,
make clay pots (…). My work totally depends on the contacts with people, that’s why it can’t
be done at home”
(a woman running a company since 2005, 12 employees,
`Building’ section, 2 children to provide for).
The activity involving frequent or constant contact with clients, business trips, performing
the activity in different places does not encourage the stable organisation of the family
life. Moreover, the initial stage of the company’s development, before it starts to function
properly, requires from the entrepreneur more time and devotion. Most often it must be
organised from the beginning at this stage. It is easier to combine professional and family
responsibilities when the rules of the company ‘s organisation are thought out and tested,
when the established relations are `operating’.
One’s own business activity creates chances of freedom in organising your time so that it is
possible to combine family and professional duties. The fact is that they are also supported
by other family members:
„(... ) my husband took over a lot of responsibilities (…) so did my son, although both of them
complain that a woman should stay at home”
(a woman running a company since 1995, 1 employee,
`Information and communication’ section, 1 child to provide for).
4. The preferable and realised family model by
female entrepreneurs
The dominant family model appeared to be the one with the woman mainly responsible
for household duties. In the case of women who work, it is the model of `the double burden’ of professional and family duties, well-known from literature.
Chart 2.
The model of division of the household duties in the family (%).
I do all duties
myself
I do most of the
duties myself
contract employees N=868
female entrepreneurs N=141
unemployed and inactive N=347
Source:
There is rather an
equal division of
duties between me
and my husband/
partner
I do the household
duties together with
other family
members (children,
parents, relatives)
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study
I don’ t take care
of my home, other
family members do
all the duties
117
Over 40% of female entrepreneurs, unemployed and inactive women and almost 40%
of contract female employees do all or most of the household duties themselves. It still
reflects a very traditional model of the relationship, even in the relatively young cohorts
of households of women at the age of 25 – 44 years old. However, an equal division
of household duties is strengthening in the relationships of women professionally active,
more often though of the contract employees than in the group of female entrepreneurs.
Half of the contract female employees and 1/3 of female entrepreneurs share their household duties with their partners, and only one out of four unemployed and inactive women
pointed to this answer. The chi-square test for independent test sample showed the gravity
of differences in the rates of answers referring to the model of household duties.
However, in the families of female entrepreneurs there is a tendency to include husbands/
partners into performing household duties and more egalitarian share of duties or taking
over some of them by men:
„...my husband was a freelancer, he graduated from the Academy of Arts (..) he always made
his projects at home so he could look after the child and I could work (…).”
(a woman running a company since 2000, 12 employees,
`Industrial processing’ section, no children to provide for);
This model is not common, though. The role of the partner more often comes down to helping, supporting women in their family responsibilities rather than taking over her duties.
Both men and women notice that among the household and family duties are those mainly connected with running home which could be assigned to other persons or outsourced
services:
„those which can’t or shouldn’t be assigned to others are care and upbringing of the children.
And these duties women are mostly responsible for, especially when the children are small
or sick (surely mother’s care is better (…) than father’s”
(a man, former entrepreneurs).
The support of family members would facilitate running business activity by women. It
is reflected in a variety of forms: from help in fulfilling family and household duties, psychological and emotional support, to advice on professional matters and division of tasks connected with work . Here is an example:
„ I expect a lot from my husband (…) when he motivated me enough to start my own company we had to realise we had children. (…) at the beginning when we started the company, we sent children to the kindergarten, (…) at the building site I had to learn everything, all
things were new to me (…) my husband took over things at the building sites, we decided
that I would be flexible enough to go to meetings, interviews, but only till 2 p.m.”
(a woman running a company since 2005, 12 employees,
`Building’ section, 2 children to provide for).
118
5. The forms of care over small children and other
dependable persons
Chart 3. How is the issue of care over children under 3 years old solved in the family (%)?99
37
40
36
35
30
25
19
20
15
12
15
10
10
3
5
16
10
4
0
children go to a
nursery/
kindergarten
I mainly take
care of them
my partner
mainly takes
care of them
women N=65
Source:
other family
member takes
care of them
a person outof-family
mainly takes
care of them
men N=8
Independent calculations on the basis of PAPI II study; p<0,05
In the case of the youngest children, the caring responsibilities are fulfilled as part of public
care (nursery, kindergarten) and private care, provided by the family member or a person
outside family. The partner of the entrepreneur fulfils these duties equally well. Attention
should be paid to the fact that these indications refer both to the surveyed men and women
in an equal way, which proves that men – husbands / partners of women running business
activity joined in to take care of the children, and even take over the care. Such a significant
participation of men in care over small children may result from their professional status:
running their own companies in the so-called freelance activity (programmers, architects,
designers and so forth). The character of such work, with the possibility to carry on doing
it at home, enables them to participate to a larger degree in care over the child.
It should be emphasised that using the public care in the households of entrepreneurs
is more common then Polish average, which may partly explain why such a low rate
of female entrepreneurs look after their small child themselves.
The gender of the respondents did not differentiate the answers to this question; the answers
were similar to a large degree, both in terms of the order of the forms used and the rate
of the users. Gender did also not differentiate the answers in statistically important terms.
The indication of the partner as the main childminder was analogically similar among male
and female entrepreneurs. In the families of the surveyed women the small child was looked
after mostly by a family member (respectively: 19% and 16%), and in the families of male
entrepreneurs public care over the children was more common (15% and 12%).
99
The charts present the rates of answers on care over children at a particular age in the families of entrepreneurs,
with children in the household at a certain group of age.
119
women N=34
men N=79
Chart 4.
How is the issue of care over children at the age of 4 – 7 years old solved in the
family (%)?
children go to
a nursery / kindergarten
my partner mainly
takes care of them
children go to
a nursery / kindergarten
my partner mainly
takes care of them
Source:
women N=34
other family
member
men
N=79 a person out-of-family
mainly takes care
mainly takes care
of them
of them
a person out-of-family
mainly takes care
of them
other family member
mainly takes care
of them
Independent study on the basis of PAPI II study
In the case of older children the public care is used – kindergartens or after-school clubs,
thus the persons running business activity are not burdened with caring responsibilities. Of
course, the question about the reasons arises. It may be possible that enormous engagement in running a company leads to the necessity to find alternative forms of care. Similarly,
the gender of the respondents did not differentiate the answers to the posed question.
It was assumed in the study that the person’s situation in the market significantly affects
the easiness to combine family and professional life, especially in terms of limited accessibility to public care over children under the age of 7 in Poland. In the survey the women
(contract employees, entrepreneurs, unemployed and inactive) were asked the question
whether running their own company or the contract work have an influence on the time
devoted to household duties and care over small children.
Chart 5. How is the issue of care over children under 3 years old solved in the family (%)?
120
100
100
80
80
60
120
40
100
20
80
0
13
0
0
0
80
8
0
0
0
5
10
0
other family a person out of
member mainly family mainly
takes care of them takes careof
40
28
them
women-contract
women entrepreneurs unemployed and inactive
18
13
20
N=34
employees N=115
N=102
10
8
5
0 0
0
0 0
0
0
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
0
other family a person out of
I mainly take
children go to a
my partner
member mainly family mainly
care of them
a nursery/
mainly takes
kindergarten
care of them takes care of them takes careof
them
women-contract
women entrepreneurs unemployed and inactive
N=34
employees N=115
N=102
60
120
28 100
18
children go to a
a nursery/
kindergarten
I mainly take
care of them
my partner
mainly takes
care of them
Chart 6.
How is the issue of care over children at the age of 4 – 7 years old solved in the
family (%)?
150
100
82
100
52
50
28
5
0
children go to school/ kindergarten
women contract employees N=240
Source:
0
I mainly take care of them
women entrepreneursN=56
unemployed and inactive N=118
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study.
The unemployed women mostly take over full care of their children in the family for apparent reasons. The families where the woman does not work (even being unemployed, she
is looking for a job and willing to undertake it) do not make use of nurseries. Only children
at the age of 4 – 7 years old are sent to a kindergarten or school.
In the studied test all female entrepreneurs, who have children under 3 years old, assigned
the main care over the
child to other family member. The results of the study conducted among entrepreneurs –
men and women – indicate that even this professional group makes use of the public care
over children under 3 years old.
Female entrepreneurs – „successful women” among whom the qualitative surveys were carried out (IDI), have children mainly at the age when the care was not necessary. They undertook business activity at a different stage of their life, also when their children were grown
up . In reference to the time of increased number of caring duties, they mostly made use
of the help of baby-sitters or family members (grandmothers), and then kindergartens. It
was also connected with the fact that they had no entitlements for maternity leave. They
perceived the changes in this range as beneficial, though insufficient, in terms of shorter
maternity leave for this group of women. The issues of care over the sick child is still to be
solved:
„my first child attended a private kindergarten. The second one was sent to a public nursery,
now goes to a private kindergarten, which is open till 5 p.m. It could also be open till 6 p.m.,
it isn’t a problem.(…). The problem is when the child is sick, then we take turns with my husband to take care of the child. He deals with his matters for half of the day, and then I do
my stuff.”
(a woman running a company since 2007, 2 employees,
`Education’ section, 2 children to provide for).
Apart from the care over children, women are also burdened with the necessary care over
other dependable persons. This problem will be increasing in terms of people getting older
and lack of public care over the elderly and the disabled. One out of five of the surveyed
female entrepreneurs (21,4%) was burdened with such responsibilities, similarly to the
unemployed and inactive in the market women (2,9%); the contract employees were burdened with them less often (15,1%). The entrepreneurs took this care more often (every
day or a few days a week – 21,4%) than the other respondents ( the contract employees
121
– 12,7%; the unemployed and inactive – 17,1%). In the balance of time spent by women
running business activity there should also be included such duties which require good
time management or can be fulfilled at the expense of professional duties, being an additional burden.
6. The postulates in terms of solutions enabling
female entrepreneurs to combine professional
and family duties.
The most important issue, requiring a solution in terms of women running business activity and looking after their children, is to create suitable forms of public care over children
and ways of using it, further on to create solutions which would favour immediate care by
the mother.
Table 7.
What solutions would enable women to combine better professional and family duties?
( % - each group of respondents).
Detailed list
PostGreater
Greatest
maternity
accesaccesLonger
leaves for
sibility
sibility
maternity
women
to nurser- to kinderleaves
entrepreies
gartens
neurs
Development
of care
over the elderly
Flexible
forms
and hours
of work
Contract employees N=868
85,5
88,3
79,4
84,7
82,1
93,3
Female entrepreneurs N=141
90,3
90,3
56,3
56,3
56,3
90,3
Unemployed
and inactive
N=347
80,2
79,3
75,1
77,6
71,6
88,9
Source:
Independent study on the basis of PAPI I study; p<0,05.
The question was regarded in general terms; however, the answers, as it can be assessed,
were formulated in the context of the individual situation of the respondents. There is a high
co-relation of opinions on the development of forms of public care over children among
women, regardless of their professional status in the labour market. The female entrepreneurs show greater distance to expanding the entitlements such as maternity and postmaternity leaves, due to the specificity of their business activity. The account for this can be
found in the statements made in the qualitative surveys.
The respondents of individual in-depth interviews (IDI) admitted that the development
of various forms of public care over children would enable them to combine professional
and family duties and encourage them to start their own business activity, that is, nurseries and kindergartens which would enable them easier access to the services provided by
these institutions, including private clubs for small children or kindergartens in the district
of residence, providing women with a chance to be active in the market.
122
An important issue is also the opening hours of these institutions, especially in terms
of irregular working hours of the mothers-entrepreneurs:
First and foremost greater accessibility,(…) there’s a big problem with the child being admitted to the kindergarten or nursery, because there are not enough places. If the mother can’t
leave her child with somebody reliable, then she can’t go to work, can’t run a company with
her child by her side (…). There used to be company kindergartens or nurseries. The mother
could go to work, so could the father, and they knew that the child was safe and well looked
after (…), there are also children at school age. (…) few extra activities, there used to be after-school clubs, activity clubs, now we don’t have such places for children to go and develop
their interests in a safe environment , and not with the key hanging around their neck, playing in the yard, because the mother must go to work”
(a woman running a company since 2008, 2 employees,
`Whole sale and retail trade’ section, no children to provide for).
In reference to maternity leaves, attention was drawn to:
„so what the woman has a 3-month or 5-month maternity leave, when she is the boss can
she make use of it? It’s some kind of financial support, but it means nothing for the company,
nothing can’t be done in this matter’
(a woman running a company since 1996, 20 employees,
`Education’ section, 1 child to provide for).
An opinion was also expressed that the issue of the appropriate education and development of such behaviours and assessments is important, taking the occurring cultural
changes limiting the cases of discrimination into consideration:
„Women should be made aware that they aren’t only fated to give birth to and bring up
the children, and get married. They need to invest in themselves, make use of general programmes of education, which (…) should be introduced right from the primary school,
because the stereotype of Polish mother has been prevailing in our society for a long time. It
may be difficult to eradicate it (…) girls should be told from the very beginning that we have
equal chances to take advantage of in our lives – if you want to have children, do it, if not,
focus on making a career”
(a woman running a company since 1993, 2 employees,
`Professional, scientific and technical activity’ section, no children to provide for).
This discrimination was perceived not in terms of women discrimination, but the discrimination of mothers:
„Here in Poland mothers are discriminated, not the women as a whole ”
(a woman running a company since 1996, 20 employees,
`Education’ section, 1 child to provide for).
As it was mentioned before, the personality features, influencing the decision to start
business activity, also reveal themselves while bringing up the children. And this is where
women seek the forms of help and support encouraging to combine social roles.
Summarising the co-relations between starting business activity and family conditions supporting such an undertaking, the hypothesis about the influence of running business activity on combining family and professional duties has been confirmed. This co-relation is bidirectional: as much as running a company determines the range and form of engagement
in family duties, as these duties – especially care over children100 - influence the decisions
about running business activity, in particular starting it.
100����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
Very low number of respondents looking after other disabled family members, not children, led to lack of conclu-
sions about – very important at present – the rate of work-family conflict.
123
In the light of the study of the results described in the chapter, one’s own business activity cannot be regarded as a `recipe’ to combine professional and family duties easily. It
may bring the reverse consequences due to the necessity to engage deeply in the business activity and devote more time to it. Generally speaking, female entrepreneurs are not
helped much by their partners in terms of family and household duties, although positive tendencies of changes could be noticed. Some female entrepreneurs believe that
employing the help to look after the home would solve the „work-family” conflict for which
the obtained income could provide. The lack of alternative care over children leads to the
situation where running business activity causes conflicts between time and duties, especially in terms of care over small children at the initial stage of the company (the increased
burdens of starting the company ) and running the company in the field requiring the contacts with clients and working outside home.
CONCLUSIONS
I. CONCLUSIONS ON THE BASIS OF SUBJECT LITERATURE AND THE STATISTICAL
ANALYSES
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
124
Female entrepreneurship is becoming a more important part of the economic
life. Female enterprises contribute to further economic growth by means of creating
new products and entering new markets; they create new places of work and provide
the possibility of income. The increasing number of female company owners proves
that women show entrepreneurial features, which enable them effectively to overcome
social barriers and actively participate in the economic processes.
The expansion of self-employment, observed in Poland during the first years of transformation, resulted from unblocking the barriers for its development at the turn of the
80s and 90s of the 20th century. The increasing activeness of individuals, including
women, expressed by the number of new companies, played a significant role. Apart
from new chances connected with the transformation, the threat of unemployment and less chances of employment in the public sector contributed to the
increase in the interest in self-employment. The highest rate of increase in the number of newly established companies by women in Poland could be observed during
the first years of transformation, when the feminised factories were closed and women
lost their jobs on a massive scale.
During the whole period of transformation (since 1989 ) the number of selfemployed women has been relatively higher than the number of self-employed
men. During the early years of transformation (1989 – 1992) the dynamics of changes
in the number of women running a business activity (non-agricultural) was higher than
the dynamics of changes in the number of male entrepreneurs. In the years 1993 – 1994
a reverse tendency could be observed, though, in the following years till 2002 the rate
of increase in the number of female companies was higher than the number of male
companies. Since 2003 a reverse tendency has been observed: men start their companies twice as often as women (on average, one out of three companies is owned by
women). The participation of women dropped by 4 %. – from 39,8% in 2002 to 35,8%
in the following year. According to Eurostat findings, in 2009 it was 34,3%. However,
the rate of female entrepreneurship in Poland (including the rate of the self-employed)
has remained one of the highest in Europe for years, also in the non- European countries.
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
According to OECD findings showing the participation of the self-employed
women (including employers, members of cooperatives and helping family
members) among all workers, Poland has been one of the leaders in this category.
Undertaking business activity at the beginning of transformation was not
the matter of choice, but rather resulted from the conditions on the labour
market – an rise from unemployment. The drop in the number of the self-employed
in the years 2003 – 2009 partly resulted from limiting the forced self-employment and–
along with the improving economic situation and the increase in demand for work –
the drop in unemployment threat.
The high activeness of Polish women in the entrepreneurship sphere is influenced by
two factors:
-- push factor to self-employment, which is the co-responsibility of women for
the financial situation of their family;
-- pull factor to start a business activity, addressed mainly to young, well-educated
women, connected with seeking in business high income and self-development.
When it comes to the issue of motivation towards undertaking business activity,
it could be noticed that women more often than men started business activity due to the lack of other reasonable alternative, and not to take advantage of the situation. Here, more influential were the push factors. At the same time,
female entrepreneurs pointed to the following reasons for starting a business
activity:
-- aspiration for independence in making own decisions - need to obtain higher
income and financial independence,
-- possibility of professional development,
-- negative experiences from the contract work,
-- prevailing circumstances in the labour market, these being the pull factors.
The determinants of entrepreneurship are of the outer character in reference to the
individual. The decision to undertake business activity results from the clash between
the inner, psychologically conditioned motivation and the outer, social-economic
determinants. Entrepreneurial framework conditions are of significance when
it comes to starting and developing business activity. The most common factious
in this context are the following:
-- accessibility to capital, public policy (taxes, legal regulations) and public programmes
supporting entrepreneurship, market openness, education and training,
-- access to technical infrastructure,
-- cultural and social norms.
The determinants defined in this way refer to both men and women.
‚‚ In the subject literature you can find specific determinants influencing female participation among all entrepreneurs:
-- technological development (women run their activity in sectors of advanced technology less often than men),
-- economic factors GDP (Gross Domestic Product) per capita: the increase in affluence
is accompanied by the demand for services which are the scope for female entrepreneurship),
125
----
unemployment (the level of unemployment has a bigger influence on female
entrepreneurship, as it mainly them who are „pushed” from work in the time of crisis
and have to seek income in self-employment),
cultural factors (acceptance of women as entrepreneurs),
institutional and demographical factors (family factors: children, partner).
Entrepreneurship faces different barriers which refer to companies run by both men
and women. Some of these barriers are particularly bothersome for women. They are as
follows:
-- tax barriers,
-- too high out-of-salary labour costs,
-- employment barriers (connected with inflexible labour law),
-- administrative barriers,
-- shadow economy existence (concealment of income and employees,
-- competition on the part of privileged enterprises, eg. special tax regulations,
-- underdeveloped technical infrastructure,
-- insufficient protection of intellectual property (disobedience in copyrights),
-- system of values and social norms, resulting in distrust towards economic initiative,
-- educational barriers.
Moreover, there were identified barriers particularly affecting women:
-- barriers of access to subsidies,
-- lack of abilities connected with entrepreneurship,
-- educational barriers (lack of information and knowledge on how to start, run
and develop a company successfully),
-- traditional socialisation (strengthening the traditional division of social roles as for
the gender).
In
many
documents, both the EU ones (eg. a strategic document Europe 2020101)
‚‚
and the national plans of actions towards employment102, indicating the necessity
to increase women’s activeness in the market, also in the form of self-employment, it is
emphasised that the basic restriction of female presence in the market is lack
of possibilities to combine family and professional duties, especially caring
responsibilities. Business activity, and more often self employment, is regarded as a flexible and family-friendly form of employment. The character of this
solution is defined by a wide range of freedom in organising the work, especially in terms of working hours and the place of work.
The factor particularly important for self-employment, positively influencing the workfamily relation, is the time of work – its amount and management. However, the statistics
of the labour market (GUS, BAEL) indicate that the work time of employers and the selfemployed in Poland is – on average – longer than of the contract employees and –
additionally – is irregular.
‚‚ A separate issue is a limited range of parental entitlements of the self-employed. These
persons are entitled to parental social insurance benefits (holidays and maternity leave,
101 European
126
Commission – Europe 2020 – http://ec.europa.eu/europe2020/ index_pl.htm [available: 12th July,
2011].
102 Krajowy Plan Działań na rzecz Zatrudnienia na lata 2009-2011, www.mpips.gov.pl/bip/akty-prawne/programy/krajowy-plan-dzialan-na-rzecz-zatrudnienia-na-lata-2009-2011/ [available 19th September, 2011].
sickness benefit), but not to labour law benefits, which the contract employees have
the right for (eg. post-maternity leave). The holiday leave is used on different conditions:
without the right to remuneration for the holiday time. Lack of places in care institutions (a widely experienced problem) means lack of sufficient support in fulfilling caring functions in the families of female entrepreneurs.
II. CONCLUSIONS FROM THE CONDUCTED RESEARCH
1. Motivations
Generally speaking, there were no significant discrepancies among men and women
in terms of positive and negative motivations towards self-employment. The most
common – in both groups – were the willingness to take advantage of prevailing circumstances (22% of both men and women), lack of alternative in the form of contract work
(18% of women and 20% of men) and the aspiration for independence (16% of women
and 14% of men).
Lack of work pushes to business: among the respondents of the study conducted with
entrepreneurs of both genders (PAPI II), 17% of both female and male entrepreneurs were
unemployed before starting a company, and in the study among women of a different professional status (PAPI I), 22% of female entrepreneurs were jobless before starting business
activity.
Similar were the paths of female and male flow into business: over 2/3 of men
and women were contract employees before starting a company, 6% of men and women
ran a company before, and 8% of women and 9% of men participating in the study conducted among entrepreneurs started their company while still being students.
Financial aspects also encourage to undertake business activity, though this motivation appears in different contexts – improving the financial situation of the family
(this factor was indicated by a little more male entrepreneurs (11%) than female company
owners (8%) ( PAPI II study conducted among entrepreneurs of both genders), at the same
time 45% of female entrepreneurs participating in the study among women of a different
professional status (PAPI I).
What differentiates the motivations of men and women is the willingness to support the business activity of their partners (indicated in qualitative surveys) and the
need for flexible care management over the child, indicated mainly by women.
In conclusion: the motivations of women to undertake business activity are mostly
– though not exclusively – of out-of-family character, that is not directly connected
with the individual family situation, in particular with the range of caring responsibilities. These are: the need to be independent and self-reliable, the willingness to use
their abilities and skills, the possibility of higher income and achieving success.
2. Social-cultural conditions of female entrepreneurship
‚‚
The cultural norms according to which female entrepreneurs are uncommon
occurrence have gone for good. These changes were emphasised in the interviews
conducted among female entrepreneurs (IDI).
127
‚‚
The system of life values, their declared hierarchy, have no significant influence on either
the professional status on the market, so on running a company, or the gender of the
company owners. Entrepreneurs of both genders considered the most important the following: honesty, satisfying careers and good health. These values
belong to the widely acceptable system of values by the Polish society.
The cultural changes go in accordance with the changes in perceiving women in terms
of psychological features necessary to run business activity. Both genders similarly perceive the characteristics of an entrepreneur:
-- industriousness (women 50% and men 49%),
-- patience (women 33% and men 31%),
-- creativity and innovativeness (women 28%, men 29%),
-- courage (women 16%, men 19%).
Women pay greater attention to soft skills than men (ease in making contacts (respectively 10% and 9% –having a wide range of contacts in the business field – 9% and 8%). A
slightly more men think that entrepreneurs should like taking risks (10%; women – 9%%).
‚‚ Women did not express greater aversion to take risks than men, even they
appeared to be more willing to take risks (experimental studies). What differentiates the respondents in terms of this issue is the professional status: 73,5% of women
referring to entrepreneurship features and 50% of female non-entrepreneurs claimed
that they liked taking risks, however, the risk connected with making a loss would be
taken by 82,4% of female entrepreneurs and 63% of female non-entrepreneurs. Female
company owners have a lower aversion to risk taking than contract employees.
In the context of demo-graphical-social and psychological-cultural features (age, work
experience, the region of residence, student status, marital status, level and kind of education, children under 7 years old) only one element is typical of women: the one resulting from the role of being a mother (compared to point 5).
3. Barriers of female entrepreneurship development
There are no differences in attitude towards running a business activity among
men and women. Both men and women mostly mentioned the following barriers of the
company development:
‚‚ too high out-of-salary labour costs (32% of women and 30% of men),
‚‚ difficulties with obtaining new clients (30% of women and 29% of men),
‚‚ complicated tax and bookkeeping formalities, complex procedures, time-consuming
formalities and dealing with them, issuing permits and licences, instability of labour law
(28% of female and 30% of male entrepreneurs).
‚‚ access to capital (12% of both male and female entrepreneurs). Here, it was often
referred to high loan collateral requirements demanded by banks and which are difficult to meet by a small company.
The difficulties emphasised by the respondents (apart from the aforementioned, also
bureaucracy, difficulties with supply and obtaining capital) are similar to those described
in other studies of small companies.
128
A significant difference about barriers of running business activity indicated by
men and women refers to family life conditions and caring duties towards small
children, observed in the qualitative studies. More women than men pointed to the
limited access to public care over small children.
4. Strategies, actions and business plan
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
The questions on strategies of actions and detailed development plans given by entrepreneurs of both genders provided surprisingly similar answers. Over half female
and male companies (54%) has a strategy of actions of the company, though
only about 17% of all companies have the strategy written down. There is an identical
percentage of active female and male entrepreneurs focused on development
and maintaining the current position in the market and the level of growth,
treating the company as a source of income.
There are no significant differences in developments plans of the companies run by men and women. The most common strategy in the nearest future was
to obtain new clients (women 92%, men 89%) and increase the sales of goods or services in the country (women 80%, men 78%). A little over than half of the respondents
(respectively: 57% i 54%) are going to expand the company by employing new workforce, and 52% of women and 51% of men are planning to invest in new technologies
and upgrade the qualifications of themselves and their employees by attending courses and training (respectively: 50% and 51%). 28% of the surveyed men and women stated that in the next 5 years they only wanted to survive and maintain the current status
of the company.
Potential female entrepreneurs are also in the group of inactive in the business market; over half of the respondents who are unemployed or inactive
and working as contract employees would be willing to start a company if they
were not able to find the contract work. They also point to (in the focal studies)
certain factors supporting their decisions. Some women are planning to start a company as they have ideas about such activity, others want to make use of the reliable
and worked-out ideas of other persons, using the existing supporting solutions (eg.
the system of the sales of goods and services in the form of franchising ).The factor
of subsidies was also mentioned as a chance to take advantage of.
5. Own business activity vs family life
The best moment to undertake business activity is the moment of entering
the labour market and choosing the career path. It is also connected with a higher
tendency to take risks , which undoubtedly favours decisions about undertaking
business activity. But the young age is also the time of decisions about personal life,
developing matrimonial and procreational plans. However, as the entrepreneurs indicate
(the qualitative surveys) the decisions about running a company should be made
when there are no family responsibilities. The awareness of this may have an influence on postponing the decision about starting a family and having children. At
a certain stage of life (motherhood) there are difficulties with equal engagement
in both spheres - family and work. Half of the female entrepreneurs (53,4%) had no
children. Among women of a different professional status the rate was as follows: contract
employees - 33%, unemployed and inactive - 30%. In the qualitative surveys the respondents
129
stated that they should devoted as much time to their children in the first stage of their lives
as possible. It does not differentiate the group of women starting business activity from
the attitudes of other women who want to make a career and strengthen their position
working as contract employees.
‚‚ Family and duties connected with children may also be a stimulus to start a company. Running your own business is associated with a better salary (this advantage was
important for 25% of female entrepreneurs) – it creates opportunities to improve
the financial situation of the family and organise your time in a suitable way
and choose the way to do your work. (24%), which provides them prevailing circumstances to combine family responsibilities and professional duties. Life, however, verifies
these attitudes and points of view, eg. two out of three surveyed entrepreneurs –
both men and women – agrees with the opinion that running your own business activity leads to the restrictions in time devoted to family responsibilities.
Only in the case of 17% of entrepreneurs, undertaking business activity did not have any
influence on the time devoted to this objective, and 10,7% noticed beneficial changes
in having more time to spend on performing household responsibilities.
Running your own company also restricts time devoted to care over children. It was
pointed to by 48,2% of all respondents and 65,7% of those with children (regardless of the
age of the children).
‚‚ Combining professional duties and family responsibilities by female entrepreneurs
depends on many factors:
-- The age of children – women running their own business activity emphasised that
the care over a small child requires more time, moreover the importance of strong
emotional bonds between the mother and the child is significant, as these bonds are
considered to be crucial in the development of the child (the qualitative surveys).
-- Forms of care over the child – the care provided by care institutions or family
members or persons not related to the family is of substitutions character in the form
of physical care. The contacts with the child are limited when the female entrepreneurs devote too much time to their business, which may lead to an emotional distance between the mother and the child. In the families of female entrepreneurs,
the care over the youngest children (0 –3 ) was mostly taken by the partner (37%).
These indications equally refer to men and women, which signifies that men – husbands/ partners of female entrepreneurs engage in the care over children, and even
take over these duties. The engagement of fathers in caring duties partly can be
accounted for, as shown in the qualitative surveys, by combining these duties and the
fictions of their freelance jobs (architect, IT specialist, designer), which allows them
to work at home at flexible hours. In the families of entrepreneurs – women and men
– the care over a small child is taken by a family member (respectively: 19% and 16%).
The care in nurseries, as for the households of female and male entrepreneurs (respectively:12% and 15%) is more common than the average rate in Poland (2–3%).
130
When it comes to older children (4 – 7 ) the most common form of care is at the kindergarten or after-school club (57% in the case of female and 56% in the case of male entrepreneurs). However, there were no cases in which the working mother (father) was mainly
responsible of the care over the child; deep engagement in the business matters breeds
the necessity to find alternative forms of care.
Neither in the case of small children nor in the case of children at the kindergarten age,
there were any significant discrepancies in the forms of care in the families
of female and male entrepreneurs.
‚‚ The level of engagement of the husband/ partner, thus the realised family
model The most common family model appeared to be the one where the woman
is mainly responsible for the family duties. The cases in which all or almost all the duties
were performed by a woman referred to 46% of entrepreneurs (37% of contract employees and 47% of unemployed and inactive). The partnership family model is strengthening, to a greater degree based on male co-engagement in household duties, to a smaller degree – on the equal division of duties: 30% of female entrepreneurs (compared
to 50% of contract employees and 23% of unemployed and inactive) stated that in their
families there is almost an equal division of duties between the partners/ spouses.
Bigger engagement of men in the care over small children indicates that the stereotypes are overcome when it comes to the social roles of men and women.
-- The abilities to organise the professional duties and family responsibilities appropriately by women, making priorities referring to the co-relation
work - family, good time management.
Female entrepreneurs pay less attention to the amount of time devoted to running a company and family duties, and more attention to the necessity to organise time in such a way
to enable them to perform duties referring to both spheres of their activity. The ability
of time management is connected with personality features, which decide about undertaking business activity and favour the success in business (the qualitative surveys).
-- The activity field (business branch)
In some cases, especially in one-person business activity (self-employment), the character of the activity may create opportunities to combine family and professional duties eg.
when the work can be done at home, when there is flexibility in time management. However, there are more business branches requiring the work outside home, presence at specific
hours, contacts with clients, everyday time discipline or business trips. The choice of activity
is uncommon when it comes to combining family and professional responsibilities.
‚‚ In the sphere of combining family and professional duties by female entrepreneurs the issue of care over children is noticeable. The solutions which would
work towards improving the situation are mostly the development of public care over the youngest children – nurseries – enabling an easier access
to them.
Such a direction of solutions supporting the combining family duties and running business
activity was indicated by 90% of the respondents of studies conducted among women
of a different professional status (PAPI I). The same rate of female entrepreneurs pointed to the necessity to increase the accessibility of care in kindergartens. They also
drew attention to the space availability and the necessity to improve the quality
of the services and their flexibility ( opening hours). Less popular were the suggestions to extend some entitlements of the contract employees onto female entrepreneurs.
The necessity to extend maternity leaves was indicated by 56% of female entrepreneurs
and the same rate of women emphasised the necessity to introduce post-maternity leave
(they have no such rights at present). It results from the specificity of the status of these
women, who – as they claim – cannot be replaced in the company at the time. The postulates
131
to extend such entitlements onto women running their business activity were mostly put
by contract employees (85%) and the unemployed and inactive in the market (78%). Their
expectations are influenced by their own situation as contract employees (currently or previously). Lack of possibility to use the parental entitlements reserved for contract
employees may be one of the barriers to undertaking business activity.
6. The advantages and disadvantages of working on your own
‚‚
‚‚
132
The advantages and disadvantages of working on your own indicated by men
and women do not differ significantly. The issues of no stress and pressure was mentioned by 88% of male and 91% of female entrepreneurs. High income was considered
as valuable by 89% of men and 90% of women. The same rates of entrepreneurs pointed to the possibility of self-development and the stability of employment as advantageous. Respect and prestige were more valuable to men (94%) than women (86%).
These conditions of work which significantly influence combining the family
and professional duties (convenient working hours and the possibility to work
at home ) were not so popular, though without many discrepancies in terms
of the gender of the respondents (the possibility to work at home : 51% of women
and 49% of men; convenient working hours: 78% of women and 76% of men).
The differences in the indicated advantages of running business activity in the case
of the surveyed women result from their status in the labour market, thus from their
experiences and expectations towards both forms of work. Own business activity was mentioned as a solution enabling to combine family and work duties
by 16% of contract female employees and 7% of unemployed and inactive
women. None of the female entrepreneurs pointed to this advantage, according to whom such possibilities were guaranteed when working for somebody
(respectively: 15% of entrepreneurs, 13% of contract employees and 9% of unemployed
and inactive). In the light of this information it is worth considering the borders of postulates for self-employment as a solution in favour of the family life. Complete and reliable information on the work conditions in own company is necessary as well as on the
disadvantages and dangers. At the same time attention should be paid to the barriers
to self-employment which are significant to women burdened with caring responsibilities (limited access to benefits, long working hours, stress, limited stability of income).
On the basis of the conducted studies the following profile of a female entrepreneurs
is developed:
‚‚ a woman younger than contract employees and inactive; her average age is 32,7 years
old (contract employees - 37,3, inactive - 35,2);
‚‚ with education level higher than secondary, though lower than contract employees
(post high school and higher education had 54,4% of entrepreneurs, 70% of contract
employees, 47% of inactive; secondary and lower respectively: 45,6%,31% and 53%). The
result may be surprising as it is believed that the higher level of education, the greater
abilities to use different opportunities in the labour market;
‚‚ representing, compared to other groups, such faculties as biological, mathematical
and technical studies, production and processing, agriculture, forestry, fishery, veterinary
(respectively: 23%, 20% i 11%). The dominant faculties, though, are arts and science studies, administration and law, that is the professional profile of the female entrepreneurs
‚‚
‚‚
mostly goes in accordance with the structure of education typical of women;
having on average fewer children than women form other groups (0,9, while contract
employees 1,13, inactive 1,36; over half of the entrepreneurs had no children). These differences are partly accounted for by the structure of the surveyed populations in terms
of marital status. Although in each group the majority of women were in a relationship -husband/ partner (respectively: 70,1%; 67%; 73,1%), the biggest number of single women was among the entrepreneurs (respectively: 22,3%; 20,8%; 15,8%). Taking
the households with children into consideration, the situation looks different – female
entrepreneurs had the biggest number of children: 2,33, while in the other groups
it was respectively: 1,72 and 1,94. It may signify that some women free themselves from
parental responsibilities, or postpone procreational decisions, or undertake business
activity when the children are already grown up. Some realise their career plans along
with procreational plans; female entrepreneurs, compared to other groups of women,
claim that they are planning to have a children (respectively: 65%,42,4% and 30,4%). In
this case we can assume that the activeness in economical sphere is accompanied by
motherly activeness;
the realisation of the family model based on „double burden” of the women – work
at own company and performing all or the majority of household duties. Female entrepreneurs do it even more often (46%) than contract employees (37%) and relatively do
not differ in reference to inactive women (47%). Less often (33%) than contract employees (50%) they realise the partnership family model (an equal division of duties between
the man and the woman) and they make use of the help of other family members less
often as well (respectively 11% and 13%). It may signify that self-employment actually enables to combine family and work duties, compared to the contract work; however, in the light of the opinions obtained in the qualitative surveys it may also signify
that self-employment is generally perceived by other family members as a possibility to combine those duties more easily. Compared to groups of women of a different
professional status, female entrepreneurs assign care over the children to other persons – unrelated to family (100% of entrepreneurs with children under 3, 28% of contract employees and none of the inactive women). Children at the age of 4 – 7 from
the families of the entrepreneurs go to kindergartens (w 100% of cases; among contract
employees 82%, inactive 52%).
133
IN CONCLUSION103:
A female entrepreneur is a young, in general well-educated woman. Her business activity was preceded by working as a contract employee. She was motivated to change her
status by financial aspects as well as her aspiration for independence and taking advantage of prevailing circumstances.
Most often, she is in a stable relationship, although she has no children. She does not
give up on having them. Developing her motherhood plans enables her to have more
children than the average birth rate. She realizes a family model based on the woman
being ‘double burdened’, and she also tries to include her husband/ partner in the family
duties (partnership model). She rarely takes care of her young children herself, entrusting them to other persons’ care (out-of-family, or her partner) or institutions of care.
Among the advantages of self-employment, she does not, however, perceive it as easier
to combine professional responsibilities with family duties.
GENERALLY SPEAKING, the research has shown that there is no such a term as
„female” and „male” entrepreneurship. All owners of small companies have similar
hopes, expectations and fears; they face similar institutional barriers and fluctuations of economic situation. Cultural norms rejecting women as businesswomen are things of the past,
and female entrepreneurs are not afraid to take challenges and risks. Another generation
of women is extremely open to changes and tendencies to take risks. Similarly to men, they
notice the following factors supporting entrepreneurship: industriousness, patience, creativity, innovativeness. Women’s knowledge on entrepreneurship is equal to men’s. There
are also gradual changes in family model in favour of partnership.
There is still one, although very crucial, factor worsening the position of women
running their own company towards men – being burdened with care-taking
responsibilities for children, especially the young ones. Thus, the basic problem is to
combine running a business activity with motherhood, which should be aided by proper
solutions supporting caring functions of the family. However, it should be decided to independently initiate support instruments of entrepreneurship addressed to all – regardless
of gender – and, to a certain degree, also taking women’s situations into consideration,
resulting from their other social role connected with their motherhood.
134
103 Na
podstawie cech dominujących.
RECOMMENDATIONS104
The recommendations were divided into the following areas:
I. Support for small and middle-size entrepreneurs.
II. Actions addressed to female and male entrepreneurs.
III.Actions aimed at combining work and family responsibilities.
I. THE POLICY OF SUPPORT FOR SMALL AND MIDDLE-SIZE BUSINESSES
ADDRESSED TO ALL ENTREPRENEURS
Limiting the administrative-bureaucratic barriers
The administrative barriers refer to both entrepreneurs and persons who want to start business activity. Thus, it should be called for:
‚‚ extending the range of CEDIG-1 form so that it is not be necessary to discharge duties
in other public offices;
‚‚ extending e-contact with public offices through ePUAP platform, especially integrating
it with ZUS (Social Insurance Office) and speeding up the process of delivering the necessary certificates;
‚‚ limiting the area of the licensed business activity to the necessary degree.
‚‚ General simplification of the regulations by means of:
‚‚ stabilising the accepted solutions, especially in the tax field;
‚‚ limiting the informative and reporting responsibilities − to public offices (the greatest
costs are generated by bookkeeping, bookkeeping evidence and the submitted tax
reports);
‚‚ simplifying the access to the institution of tax credit, actually used on a very small
scale;
‚‚ adapting the requirements connected with Safety and Hygiene of Work, sanitary-epidemiological and fire regulations to the real needs of small and middle-size companies.
There cannot be any concessions towards the necessary standards, but the standards
of big companies should not refer to small and middle-size businesses.
Limiting the financial barrier
Considering the issue of providing entrepreneurs (especially small and newly-established
subjects) with the access to the outer sources of financing, the following should be done:
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
introducing an effective system of support for entrepreneurship development with
simplified application forms and documentation, the possibility of e-contact with
the institutions implementing support programmes (also at the stage of applying
and settling matters), easy access to high-quality information on the available support
programmes;
expanding the network of Advisory Centres as part of the National System of Services,
which inform about the ways of obtaining resources for the company development
introducing, currently used as a test, the service of assistance to run business activity
104 The
recommendations are prepared on the basis of the results of empirical studies and selected suggestions
of actions included in the expertise edited by Kurowska, A. (2011) Law in favour of women entrepreneurship
in Poland. Recommendations for changes, PARP, Warsaw (manuscript copyright).
135
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
into the regular offer of KSU centres;
undertaking informative-promotional actions addressed to small and middle-size entrepreneurs, describing the activity of loan funds in Poland;
creating a portal, information database on the possibility to obtain resources from venture capital funds including seed capital.
The development of business incubators
ensuring, in a new financial perspective, resources to establish business incubators,
offering entrepreneurs the usable area, consultancy, access to subsidies and other conveniences – the so-called „start package”.
Building the competences of entrepreneurs
‚‚
‚‚
preparing an offer of free and partly paid trainings and workshops providing with
very practical knowledge in in terms of running a company, managing it, marketing
and advertising, building a competitive position of the company, using the achievements of science by novice or less experienced entrepreneurs. It is also necessary
to provide trainings for experienced company owners dealing with advanced issues,
eg. the internationalisation of enterprises. It would also be good to use for this PARP
Academy portal, which offers entrepreneurs and persons starting business activity free
on-line training and the supervision of a mentor;
simplifying the access to broadband − Internet, which is becoming the key instrument
in the development of small companies. It is suggested to launch an informative campaign mostly addressed to local and regional authorities of these parts of Poland where
there is still no access to broadband Internet and aimed at encouraging to take actions
in order to eliminate this barrier by means of the EU resources available as part of current financial perspective.
II. RECOMMENDATIONS ADDRESSED INDIVIDUALLY
Building the potential of female entrepreneurs
Apart from purely professional trainings, addressed to a large group of people, it is necessa­
ry to take individualised actions taking the far-reaching specificity of the recipient into consideration. Individual professional assistance, coaching, mentoring could be referred to.
It is also suggested to create networks of female entrepreneurs who are active in clubs
/groups of support, where during the meetings certain aspects of running business activity
would be discussed, and the participants could share their own experience, broaden their
knowledge and build their potential.
Individualised school education
Establishing one’s own company requires the preparation of young persons to this undertaking through the essential knowledge in the educational system and developing
and shaping appropriate attitudes supporting entrepreneurship. It should be the objective
of schools of all levels – in terms of realising the appropriate curriculum, other training institutions as well as the institution of the labour market in reference to the youth who enters
the market.
136
Entrepreneurship cannot be learnt from books. The curriculum must be based on the studies of particular cases and games showing the relations with the market or the public office
by means of appropriate programmes. Attention should be drawn to the individualisation
of the educational paths of girls and women in order to level their chances on the labour
market. It is necessary to abandon the stereotypes of female professions in favour of arousing interest in the professions of the future. Greater emphasis should be placed on career
advisory at the stage of last grades of junior high schools. It is the time when the directions
of further education are chosen, which will decide about the future life and careers. It is also
to introduce such programmes as „Dziewczyny na Politechniki” (Girls to Polytechnics) and to
promote women as employers, managers and company owners.
III.RECOMMENDATIONS AIMED AT COMBINING WORK AND FAMILY RESPONSI­
BILITIES
1. The development of social services
Considering the specificity of work as part of running business activity, first and foremost
attention should be drawn to the necessity to develop out-of-family forms of care.
‚‚ The development of nurseries and kindergartens
The development of the network of nurseries and kindergartens should become a primary objective in terms of actions to combine work and family responsibilities. We recommend the division of the budget so that it would be possible to increase systematically
the resources to accomplish it. Other subject should join in these actions, especially nongovernment organisations and places of work. The basis of including the places of work
in the development of institutions of care over children is provided by the law regulation
from 4th February, 2011 on the care over children under the age of 3, Law Gazette No 45,
position 235.
It requires to:
-- adapt the network of institutions to the local needs, offering the real possibilities
of access to their services by a larger number of children;
-- improve and level the quality of caring and educational services provided by
the institutions − located in different areas (large cities versus small town and villages);
Making
the regulations of caring and educational institutions more flexible ‚‚
adapting them to the needs of the users in terms of:
-- opening hours;
-- the possibility of temporary stay (a few hours a day, a few days a week;
-- divisions for the youngest children (2 – 3 years old), also in kindergartens;
-- the widely available possibility of care over those children whose parents use different forms of adult education;
-- the promotion of the idea of creating other forms of care over children. The
development of this form of care is regulated by (law regulation from 4th February
2011 on care over children under the age of 3, Law Gazette, No 45, position.235).
It should be encouraged by:
-- promotional campaigns, informative activity for persons interested in undertaking
business activity, advisory, train organisation substantive supervision (through specialised institutions).
137
Support in costs incurred for the care over children
‚‚
‚‚
the support in incurring costs of taking care over children (different forms of out-offamily care) could be in the form of caring-educational vouchers for all parents of the
children attending nurseries and other institutions of care (clubs for young children),
the value of which would decrease along with the increase in the family income.
accepting the costs of formal care over children as tax deductible expenses, by which
the taxation base would be decreased. As far as women starting business activity are
concerned, these expenses would be related to the income they generate. It should
also be mentioned that an analogical solution should be included in the tax regulations
referring to PIT tax.
The development of caring-educational and cultural-recreational services for children and young people at school age
We recommend introducing additional, extracurricular classes, development and cultural
and sports and recreational events into the range of classes offered by schools. These forms
of the activity of the schools are to educate as well as integrate the environment of students
and positively influence the way children and young people spend their free time. They are
also a form of care over children at the early stage of school.
The actions are necessary in the following range:
‚‚ increasing the offer of caring, educational and cultural-recreational services fro children
and young people at school age;
‚‚ extending the range of care after classes over children in primary and junior high
schools.
These actions could be undertaken, in different forms and range, by both local governments
(their statuary tasks) and other institutions or persons, including employers, as part of the
accomplishment of the missions connected with the idea of social responsibility of business.
2. Social benefits
Women running business activity make use of the entitlements reserved for contract
employees on a small scale. For example, the conditions of using the rights for the immediate care over children right after maternity leave are less favourable as they are not entitled
to post-maternity leave. A the same time, Council of the European Union (86/613/EWG
from 11th December, 1986, (art.8), referring also to our country, emphasises the necessity
to consider whether and on what conditions self-employed women could use financial
benefits at the time of suspending their business activity due to pregnancy and motherhood as part of social security system or any other public system of social security.
The changes in terms of using the entitlements reserved for contract employees should go
in two directions:
2.1. Direct actions in favour of women running business activity in terms of entitlements connected with motherhood
‚‚
138
Introducing reductions equivalent to obligatory fees on account of social insurance
for the period in which the pregnant women (entrepreneur) should not continue carrying out business responsibilities in the current scope on the grounds of her child’s
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
well-being and her own health (eg. working with the computer, business trips and so
forth). Since such restrictions in terms of running a business have a negative influence
on the level of income she generates, it seems necessary – on account of an analogical solution giving her the right to be exempt from providing business services along
with retaining the right for remuneration, which contract employees are entitled to –
to introduce reductions in payment of social insurance fees for the period of the actual
restriction of the possibility to run business activity due to health problems. A solution
like this could involve calculating the fees from the reduced payment base. Further on,
during the period of economic growth, reorganisation and limiting the public budget
expenses, a possibility could be considered to introduce the subsidies from the public
budget to a particular rate – percentage or quota – of insurance fees.
It is advisable to enable female entrepreneurs during pregnancy and early motherhood
to notify of the suspension of their business activity, along with retaining the possibility
of being subjected to voluntary health insurance and taking advantage of the benefits
on account of motherhood at the time.
The possibility of submitting to voluntary health insurance by female entrepreneurs
– such a solution would free mothers from regular informative-administrative procedures (connected with the necessity to submit monthly declaration forms referring
to obligatory taxes and social insurance fees), and at the same time would guarantee
them the continuity of being insured and retain the benefits on account of sickness
and motherhood, also in the situation when the labour would occur during the period
of the suspension of their business activity.
It seems advisable to introduce an alternative solution to post-maternity leave for persons running business activity, which could be in the form of the suspension of the
activity for the period of taking care of the child and recognising this period as non-fee
one in work experience, essential to define the pension entitlement.
It can be considered to introduce, right after maternity leave, the period analogical
to post-maternity leave reserved for contract employees, in which women running
business activity would be entitled to reduced social insurance fees.
2.2. Incentives for female contract employees to undertake business activity
The introduction of solutions supporting the process of the incubation of business initiative for the particular period right after maternity leave or at the last stage of post-maternity leave. The institution of ‘incubation of the company’ could be introduced, giving
them the head start on the labour market. In reference to this, it seems advisable to introduce a short (several-month long) period which could be used by women on maternity
leave to test business ideas without the necessity to register the company. This process
would involve notifying business support units or the register of preincubated companies
in CEiDG of starting the preincubation period. Taking into consideration the fact that during post-maternity leave social insurance fees are financed by the state budget, financial
charges of women testing ideas of their business activity would be minimised.
In every case, when the solutions refer to lowering the pension fees, it should be remembered that in perspective such actions result in adjournment in the form of lower pension
benefits.
139
2.3. Indirect solutions enabling women to combine family and work responsibilities, in the situation when the father would be entitled to such benefits.
Maternity leave
‚‚ Extending part of maternity leave, which the father of the child is entitled to use (paternity leave).
‚‚ Greater engagement of men in caring duties through using part of maternity leave
reserved for the mother would enable women running business activity to combine
family and work responsibilities. The structure of maternity leave enables women
to recuperate after the labour and look after the baby. The aspect connected with caring duties justifies the fact that fathers use paternity leave.
‚‚ A further-ranging solution is to extend the range of maternity leave on the condition
that it will be used by the father of the child.
‚‚ The current solutions in this field (the father’s right for 14-day paternity leave) have yet
not brought distinctive results in the form of changes in the behaviour of men. The
suggested solutions could be an incentive for some families to use the extended entitlements, and moreover they could influence the development of positive attitudes
towards paternal care over small children.
Post-maternity leave
‚‚ The change in child age limit being the criterion to use the right for post-maternity leave. The 36-month long leave could be used by one of the parents, depending
on their choice, during the period till the child is 8.
‚‚ The possibility to use post-maternity leave till the child is 8 years old would increase its
flexibility and adaptation to the real and potential needs of the family.
‚‚ It could be expected that the possibility to use post-maternity leave to take care of the
older child − would increase the willingness of the fathers to use such entitlements.
3. The development of WLB (Work Life Balance) and FFE (Family Friendly Employment) programmes
The interest increase of employers in the development of the network of institutions providing caring, educational and sports-recreational services for children and young people
in the particular area. Their participation can take on the form of subjective sponsoring (eg.
subsidies for the institutions providing social services) or objective sponsoring (subsidies for
different programmes or undertakings in favour of children and young people).
The introduction of tax deductions on account of the sponsorship of such institutions
should be a notable incentive.
‚‚ Promotional and informative campaigns, providing the benefits for laces of work, eg.
in the form of contests.
‚‚ Taking into consideration the WLB and FFE issues at the trainings for employees
and management;
‚‚ Launching campaigns making the society aware of the advantages odf such programmes.
4. The development of the forms of care over the elderly and the dependable
140
‚‚
The ageing processes of the population draw attention to the necessity to apply a differ-
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
ent approach to the family − policy and include the family responsibilities for the elderly
and the disabled family members in it.
The support for the family to fulfil its caring and protective functions can take on different forms. It could be help in the form of support for caring responsibilities provided
as part of the family environment, but without the immediate engagement of the family members. This objective could be aided by the development of care services at the
patient’s home, provided by professional careers, adapting the patient’s home to the
needs of an elderly person (widely available subsidies and the appropriate equipment
and furniture), matter-of-fact help in the form of renting the rehabilitation equipment,
the development of transport and catering services. The costs incurred by the family
can be aided by care benefits paid from the insurance (creating the system of care insurance) and budget resources.
Family carers should be provided with a system of advisory and support including
the situations when the help of Introducing the activities supporting the partnership in the family into family advisory. professionals is necessary in order to fulfil care
responsibilities towards an elderly person, and the psychophysical support of the carer
and during their temporary substitution.
The development of care services provided by specialised institutions, which ensure
the access to them by those in need, is also desirable.
5. The actions in favour of changing the stereotypes about perceiving the roles
of men and women, and developing partnership in the family.
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
‚‚
Promoting the partnership family model and disseminating positive examples into
the school curriculum and the classes in the form of educational programmes,
the actions of educational and cultural institutions and as well as in the media.
Promoting the greater engagement of fathers in the care over small children (in the form
of paternity and post-maternity leave), disseminating positive examples by means
of campaigns in the media.
Introducing the activities supporting the partnership in the family into family advisory.
Including the studies on the social and cultural roles and the stereotypes of genders
into the curriculum in primary schools, junior high schools and schools of secondary
education (the education of health protection, the upbringing preparing to family life,
civic studies, the education in terms of human rights - as far as gender is concerned).
141
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33.Lisowska, E. (2004) ‘Female entrepreneurship in Poland’ [w:] Gender vs economic possibilities in Poland: have women lost much due to transformation?, Report nr 29205, World Bank,
Warsaw.
34.Łapiński, J. (2010) ‘SMEs registered and active in the years 2008-2009’ [in:] Report on SME
sector in 2008-2009, Warsaw, PARP.
35. Ministry of Economy (2010) Entrepreneurship in Poland, Department of Analysis and Prognosis, Warsaw.
36.Mizgajska, H. (2010) The influence of education on motivations and barriers to women entrepreneurship based on Wielkopolska experience Poznań, University of Economics in Poznań.
MPiPS (2008)
143
37.Orhan, M., Scott, D. (2001) ‘Why women enter into entrepreneurship: An explanatory
model’, Women in Management Review, 16(5), s. 232-243. Orser, B. (2009)
38.Canadian Women Entrepreneurs, Research and Public Policy: A Review of Literature, University of Ottawa.
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40.SCALES (2003) Verheul, I, Thurik, A.R Explaining the entrepreneurial activity rate of woman:
A macro level perspective, ,Zoetermeer
41.SCALES (2006) Verheul, van Stel, Thurik, Explaining female and male entrepreneurship
at the country level, Zoetermeer.
42.World Survey (2009) World Survey on the Role of Women in Development Women’s Control
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Report on SME sector in 2008-2009, Warsaw, PARP.
144
ATTACHMENT 1
Report on the economic experiment
CONTENTS
Introduction
The environment of the experiment
Research hypotheses
The analysis of results
The profitability of self-employment depending on the round type
The profitability of self-employment depending on the market size
The differences in the form of employment among the participants
The determinants of entrepreneurship accounting for the reasons for differences
among the participants of particular groups
The analysis of the choices of the participants belonging to particular categories
in terms of the round type and the market size
The knowledge on entrepreneurship
The expected number of companies
Attitudes towards taking risks, emotions, trust
The comprehensive model of regression
Conclusions
Appendices
Appendix 1. The instruction of a sample experimental session
Appendix 2. The average profit obtained from self-employed work in the particular
rounds and the experimental groups depending on the round type.
Appendix 3. The division of the frequency of choosing self-employment
depending on gender and entrepreneurship (1 observation = 1 participant)
148
149
152
154
154
157
159
163
163
166
167
170
174
177
178
178
180
181
Introduction
The incentive to conduct this study was the realisation of the project `Female Entrepreneurship in Poland, commissioned by The Polish Agency of Entrepreneurship Development
(PARP). In the herein project entrepreneurship was regarded in terms of running business
activity by women, which includes both self-employment and running companies which
employ workers (the so-called employers).
There were both quantitative surveys and qualitative surveys (IDI and FGI) included in the
project, conducted among male and female respondents, which was to define which actions
of the state (ie. economic policy) influence both genders to the same degree, and which
are mostly connected with female entrepreneurship. A particular emphasis was put on the
solutions enabling women to combine work responsibilities and care duties, which burden
mainly them in Polish society. Due to technical reasons, two phases of running business
activity were mainly focused on: (i) the functioning on the market and running business
activity and (ii) after making the decision to cease running one’s own business.
From the economic point of view, it is not a priori determined whether the support programmes of female entrepreneurship in Poland are deliberate. The basic problem referring
to the situation of women in the labour market is a low rate of their professional activeness.
In 2009 this rate was 52,8% (whereas the rate of male activeness was 66,1%). As a result,
the participation of professionally active women among all professionally active persons
in Poland was 44,4%. The lower level of activeness in the market among men and women
does not only refer to Poland, but also to other countries, which is presented in the chart
below.
The problem, both in Poland and other countries, is a high rate of women who are inactive in the labour market. Thus, the key issue is the activation of women. However, it is not
determined yet whether the professionally inactive persons, mainly without the necessary
knowledge and experience in running business activity, will become effective entrepreneurs after participating in training sessions devoted to them. It may seem that the activation of these persons should occur by means of creating new places of employment,
and not by support and help to start business activity on preferential terms. Moreover, the
participation of women among entrepreneurs, especially employers, in Poland is very high
compared to other countries, which was described in chapter I of the main report.
148
It is easy to see that even in Poland the rate of women among all entrepreneurs and employers is much lower than the rate of all employees. The answer referring to the reasons for
such a situation is not easy; however, it is of significant importance when it comes to predicting the effectiveness and usefulness of female entrepreneurship support programmes.
The lower rate of women than men among all entrepreneurs may result from their preferences and conscious choices. Particularly, a lot of research indicates that on average men
are more willing to compete and take risks as well as overestimate their chances of the
success of their undertakings. If these motives account for the high rate of male entrepreneurship, is there any reason then to encourage more women to do what they do not really
want? Conversely, if this kind of discrepancies in male and female preferences for different
aspects of running business activity are insignificant, the low number of female entrepreneurs may result from social barriers, hindering women’s choices or even serious consid-
eration of this development path. For instance, this kind of changes may be torpedoed by
their spouse. In that case, entrepreneurship support programmes would seem deliberate.
The laboratory experimental studies aim to compare the aforementioned, crucial for business activity, preferences of men and women.
The application of the experimental method enables to compare the pledged decisions
and the actual decisions made by the participants, thanks to which the results are more reliable and valid than when using direct methods; the analysis carried out on this basis reflects
the actual behaviour of people. It is especially important when examining the persons who
only consider and prepare themselves for undertaking business activity, as it eliminates the
problem of answers to hypothetical questions.
The environment of the experiment
The conducted study was based on the approach used by Camerer i Lovallo (1999)1 and constituted its extension. In their pioneering work the factors influencing the decision to enter
the market (establishing one’s own company) were analysed. The authors put forward the
hypothesis that the excessive optimism in the assessment of one’s own skills and abilities
leads to the failure of the companies which were unnecessarily established. The results
of their experiment, carried out on students in the USA, confirmed this assumption – the
respondents made decisions to enter the experimental market despite the expected number of opponents, which made the decision moderately fruitless. They expected to do better than the others.
The experimental study, as part of this project, was conducted among 160 participants who
were divided into ten
16-person groups creating independent experimental sessions. In each session the persons
belonging to four categories took part: (i) female entrepreneurs (KP), (ii) male entrepreneurs (MP), (iii) female non-entrepreneurs (KNP), (iv) male non-entrepreneurs (MNP). The
category of entrepreneurs included persons who were running or planning to run their
own business, or running courses, trainings or other form of business activity. The other
persons were qualified to the category of non-entrepreneurs. The respondents were aware
of the fact that persons belonging to all four categories were participating in each sessions,
although they did not know their exact number. In the table below the number of participants of particular categories attending consecutive sessions was presented.
Table 1.
The number of participants of particular categories attending consecutive sessions.
Gr1
Gr2
Gr3
Gr4
Gr5
Gr6
Gr7
Gr8
Gr9
Gr10
Total
KP
4
3
4
3
2
4
3
4
4
3
34
MP
4
2
4
4
5
3
5
5
2
1
35
KNP
4
6
3
5
4
5
5
3
5
6
46
MNP
4
5
5
4
5
4
3
4
5
6
45
Sum
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
16
160
Source:
1
Independent study.
Camerer, C., Lovallo, D. (1999) “Overconfidence and Excess Entry: An Experimental Approach”, The American Economic Review 89 (1), s. 306-318.
149
The course of each experimental session was the following:
(i) getting familiar with the study instructions in the paper form2 by the participants;
(ii) the questionnaire enabling to divide the participants into the particular categories
(gender and entrepreneurship);
(iii) the basic part of the experiment made up of 3 test rounds and 24 paid rounds;
(iv) test on entrepreneurship consisting of 11 test questions (one answer possible);
(v) 6 short questions referring to personality features of the respondents such as preferences, trust, emotions and attitude to taking risks;
(vi) the presentation of the results and payment time.
In each of 24 rounds the participants made decisions about the form of employment: (i)
contract work, or (ii) self-employment. The particular rounds differed from one another by
two experimental variables: the market size (the number of companies which will achieve
success) and the way of creating a ranking list (the way of ranking the businesses) – at random (LOS) or based on the entrepreneurship test results (TEST).
In order to motivate the participants to make thought-out decisions, a specified system
of rewards was prepared
increasing the psychological realism of the study. The participants received payment for
work in one of the selected rounds, regardless of the chosen form of employment. The
payment for contract work was 0 PLN, and for the self-employed work it could be positive
or negative. It depended on the market size and the position which the company takes
in the rankings, which is presented below.
Table 2.
Payment received by the self-employed participants.
Payment for self-employed work
The market size
Ranking list
position
2
4
6
8
1
67 zł
40 zł
29 zł
22 zł
2
33 zł
30 zł
24 zł
19 zł
3
-20 zł
20 zł
19 zł
17 zł
4
-20 zł
10 zł
14 zł
14 zł
5
-20 zł
-20 zł
9 zł
11 zł
6
-20 zł
-20 zł
5 zł
8 zł
7
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
6 zł
8
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
3 zł
Others
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
Source:
Independent study.
As could be observed in the above table, the average salary for self-employed work was 0
PLN, if the number of the respondents choosing this form of employment was equal: the
market size + 5. As the salary received from self-employed work was 0 PLN, assuming the
neutrality of the respondents towards risk, the number of companies is expected to be
larger than the market size by 5. In TEST rounds, the particular participants should make the
decisions about entering the market depending on the expected chances of success in the
150
2
The instruction of a sample experimental session is presented in Appendix1.
test. However, if they do not systematical mistakes and are neutral towards risk, the average
number of companies should be larger than the market size by 5.
The method of creating the ranking list of companies changed after round 12. In sessions:
1, 2, 3, 5 i 7 in rounds
1 – 12 the ranking was made at random, and in the round 13 – 24 it was made on the basis
of the test. In other sessions (4, 6, 8, 9, 10) the order was reverse – in the first 12 rounds the
ranking was created on the basis of the test results, and in the next 12 rounds – it was created at random. In the situation when two or more persons had the same test result, the
time decided about the position on the ranking list. The market size in each experimental
session in the rounds 1 – 12 took each of these values three times: 2, 4, 6 and 8, and their
order was random. In the rounds 13 – 24 the successive values of the market were the same
like in the next rounds 1-12, which is presented in the table below.
Table 3. The market size in the consecutive rounds of the experiment.
Round
Gr1
(L/T)
Gr2
(L/T)
Gr3
(L/T)
Gr4
(T/L)
Gr5
(L/T)
Gr6
(T/L)
Gr7
(L/T)
Gr8
(T/L)
Gr9
(T/L)
Gr10
(T/L)
1
8
6
2
8
8
8
6
2
8
8
2
2
2
4
2
4
2
2
4
4
4
3
8
4
2
6
6
8
4
2
6
6
4
6
2
4
2
8
6
2
4
8
8
5
6
4
6
6
2
6
4
6
2
2
6
2
6
6
2
2
2
6
6
2
2
7
8
8
6
8
4
8
8
6
4
4
8
2
8
8
4
2
2
8
8
2
2
9
4
8
8
4
4
4
8
8
4
4
10
4
2
2
8
6
4
2
2
6
6
11
4
4
8
6
6
4
4
8
6
6
12
6
6
4
4
8
6
6
4
8
8
13
8
6
2
8
8
8
6
2
8
8
14
2
2
4
2
4
2
2
4
4
4
15
8
4
2
6
6
8
4
2
6
6
16
6
2
4
2
8
6
2
4
8
8
17
6
4
6
6
2
6
4
6
2
2
18
2
6
6
2
2
2
6
6
2
2
19
8
8
6
8
4
8
8
6
4
4
20
2
8
8
4
2
2
8
8
2
2
21
4
8
8
4
4
4
8
8
4
4
22
4
2
2
8
6
4
2
2
6
6
23
4
4
8
6
6
4
4
8
6
6
24
6
6
4
4
8
6
6
4
8
8
Source:
Independent study.
The exception to the approach used by Camerer and Lovallo (1999) was that the instructions used in the study were not abstract, and the test questions verified specific knowledge on entrepreneurship. This change was made to increase the outer accuracy of the
study. Moreover, the selection of the participants used in the study enabled a comparative
151
analysis of the decisions made in terms of gender and the form of employment, which was
not included in the quoted work.
Apart from the main assignment, the participants were awarded additionally for: predicting the number of participants deciding to start business activity in a particular round (0,5
PLN for each accurate prediction), entrepreneurship test (0,5 PLN for each correct answer)
and taking part in the study (20 PLN.). The average salary was 28 PLN (the minimum salary
was 3 PLN, and the maximum - 95 PLN). The payment was received directly on completion
of the experiment.
The study was conducted pursuant to specific software made especially for this purpose,
based on the LabSEE3 platform. The participants were the persons at the age of 20 - 30 lat,
at which first decisions about the form of employment are made. Moreover, the test was
restricted to the persons with the greatest professional potential, for whom there is the
greatest chance of achieving success in running business activity – graduates and students of last years from economic and managerial departments of universities and schools
of higher education. Thanks to this, the respondents were divided into similar social groups
and did not differ in a significant way in terms of invisible, specific features. In the research
there were 160 participants, recruited mainly among Academic Business Incubators members, the members of AIESEC, the students of Economic Studies Department and Management Department of Warsaw University and the students of Warsaw School of Economics.
Research hypotheses
There were three basic hypotheses put forward in the research. Hypotheses 1 and 2 refer
to the market balance,
and hypothesis 3 refers to the discrepancies in the choice of the form of employment
among particular categories of the participants (KP, MP, KNP, MNP).
H1: The profitability of self-employment depends on the round type – in the LOS rounds
the average salary from self-employed work will not be significantly different from 0,
and in the TEST rounds they will be negative.
This hypothesis suggests that in the LOS rounds the market was balanced (the number
of companies = the market size + 5), and in the TEST rounds the number of companies is too
high (the number of companies > the market size + 5). The confirmation of the hypothesis
would mean that the participants overestimate their entrepreneurship test result. It would
result in too frequent decisions about self-employment in the rounds in which the financial
result depended on their skills and knowledge. Camerer and Lovallo claim that such a result
reflects the market reality, ie. the situation when most of newly established companies go
bankrupt; what is more, in spite of the availability of unfavourable statistics in this field, new
cohorts of entrepreneurs establish more companies believing that their enterprise will survive and make a profit.
H2: The profitability of self-employment does not depend on the market size.
The hypothesis H2 is a peculiar test on the stability of the obtained results. The expected
number of companies is bigger than the market size by 5. However, it is not a priori clear
152
3
LabSEE - platform to conduct economic experiments used by Laboratory of Experimental Economy WNE UW. The
example screen of the experiment is included in appendix2
whether the research results will confirm these assumptions. On the one hand, the participants may behave differently when the market capacity is small, and differently when
a large number of companies will succeed. On the other hand, it very often occurs in this
type of research that there is no coordination between the decisions made by the participants. The confirmation of this hypothesis (H2) would mean that the number of persons
deciding to run business activity was determined by the size market, so the respondents
consciously adapted their decisions to the existing situation in the market .
Hypotheses 1 and 2 refer to the market situation directly created by the participants. Their
verification will be a reference point when comparing the differences between the men
and the women, and the entrepreneurs and the non-entrepreneurs, which is the main
objective of the study.
H3: There are significant differences among the respondents referring to the undertaken
form of employment. The frequency of choosing the particular form depends on gender and entrepreneurship, in particular:
H3_1: Women less often than men choose self-employment. This difference is particularly
visible in the non-entrepreneurs group.
H3_2: Entrepreneurs choose self-employment more often than non-entrepreneurs. The
difference applies to both men and women.
The verification of hypothesis H3 will enable to examine the actual differences referring
to the attitude towards self-employment in terms of gender and entrepreneurship. The
results of the research will help assess the real preferences of the persons belonging to particular categories. It could be stated on the basis of the analysis whether female entrepreneurship support programmes may contribute to reducing the disproportion between
men and women. The verification of hypothesis H3 will be conducted on the basis of two
sub-hypotheses: H3_1 and H3_2.
Hypothesis H3_1 suggests that there is a difference, in terms of gender, in attitude towards
the risk taken connected with the insecurity of income. Women, more often than men,
choose safe income, thus they have bigger risk aversion4 This phenomenon is especially
noticeable in the group of persons who do not intend to run their own business activity. Among entrepreneurs, who run business activity or are going to start it, this difference
is relatively small. Thus, the confirmation of this hypothesis will suggest that it is difficult
to increase female entrepreneurship as women consciously choose the contract work,
treating self-employment as a worse alternative. In that case, a programme with the aim
to increase female entrepreneurship may no be successful – conversely, it may appear to be
pointless.
The confirmation of hypothesis H3_2 will signify that the persons who run or plan to run
their own business activity are more willing to take risks in terms of the choice about the
form of employment. These persons are entrepreneurs on their own accord, and not due
to lack of an alternative – they prefer self-employment and the binding consequences rather than the contract work.
4
There are a lot of research indicating risk aversion higher for women than men , eg. Byrnes J., Miller D. and Schafer
W. (1999), “Gender differences in risk taking: A meta-analysis”, Psychological bulletin, 125(3), 367.
153
The analysis of results
One of the most important findings obtained by Camerer and Lovell (1999) was too high selfconfidence of the respondents, who overestimated their skills. In LAOS rounds the persons
undertaking self-employment on average made a profit (the expected amount of income
was higher then 0 on 77% of markets, and lower than 0 on 6% of markets), whereas in TEST
rounds the average salary was lower than 0 (profits on 40% of markets, and losses on 42%
of markets). Thus, the analysis of the results will begin with the profitability of self-employment in terms of the round type, that is with the verification of hypothesis H1.
The profitability of self-employment depending on the round
type
In order to examine the profitability of self-employment, the average profits were calculated made by the respondents who chose this form of employment in the next rounds in the
particular experimental groups, which is presented in appendix 2. On the basis of that,
the charts were created to present the divisions of profits from self-employed work for all
rounds and the division in terms of the ranking list of companies, which is shown in the
picture 1 below.
Picture 1.
The divisions of the average salaries obtained from the contract work in the round depending on the round type (1 observation = 1 round).
The number of observations (%)
Part 1: All rounds
40%
35%
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
Profits
154
45%
The number
observations
( %)
Theofnumber
of observations
( %)
40%
Part 2: LOS rounds
35%
45%
30%
40%
25%
35%
20%
30%
15%
25%
10%
20%
5%
15%
0%
10%
5%
0%
Profits
Profits
The number
observations
( %)
The of
number
of observations
( %)
Part 3: TEST rounds
35%
30%
35%
25%
30%
20%
25%
15%
20%
10%
15%
5%
10%
0%
5%
0%
Profits
Source:
Independent study.
Undertaking self-employment was generally profitable
Profits – on average, the salary from this
form of work in a particular round was 1,13PLN (median 1,25PLN). In LOS rounds LOS the
salary was, on average, 1,86PLN (median 1,25PLN) and it was higher than in TEST rounds,
in which it fluctuated around 0 (average 0,41PLN, median 0PLN), which is presented
in picture.
155
Picture 2.
The average salary obtained from self-employed work depending on the round type (1
observation = 1 round).
8
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
LOS
Whole
Average
TEST
Median
Whole
LOS
TEST
1,13
1,86
0,41
Percentile 95
5
6,25
5
Percentile 75
2,5
3,75
2,5
Median
Average
1,25
1,25
0
Percentile 25
0
0
-1,25
Percentile 5
-3,13
-1,25
-3,75
Source:
Independent study.
In the rounds where the random method to create the ranking list was used, the average
salary from the self-employed work was negative in only in 8,3% of cases compared to 35%
for TEST rounds. The positive salary occurred in 68,3% of cases in LOS rounds compared
to 47,5% in TEST rounds. In order to check the statistical gravity of differences in profits
made by the participants of different round types, two test were conducted: Wilcoxon test
and Signs test, in which the single observation was equal to the average salary of the participants in a particular round (the number of observations = 10 groups * 12 rounds of a particular type). Both Wilcoxon test (N=120, P=5,509, p<0,001) and Signs test (N=120, P=4,927,
p<0,001) indicated that the profits in TEST rounds were statistically significantly lower than
in LOS rounds. As de facto there were only 10 independent observations made (10 groups)
in the study, Wilcoxona test was also carried out applying the conservative approach, which
also confirmed the statistical gravity of changes (N=10, P=2,497, p<0,013). Hypothesis H1
suggesting that the profitability of self-employment depended on the round type – in LOS
rounds the average salary from self-employed work was 0, and in TEST rounds it was negative - was partly confirmed. Indeed, higher profits from self-employed work were made
in the rounds, in which the result was obtained at random, although in both types of rounds
the choice about this form of employment was profitable.
156
A lower average salary from self-employed work in TEST rounds than in LOS rounds very
often resulted from the fact that the participants chose this form of employment if the
ranking position was created on the basis of the knowledge, and not at random. It signifies
that the average participant thought that their ranking position based on the knowledge
would be higher than the ranking position created at random. The majority believed that
their entrepreneurship test results would be higher than the median, whereas only 50%
of them could be placed above the median. The respondents overestimated their knowledge, which led to the increase in the number of companies on the market. Contrary to the
result of the research conducted by Camerer and Lovallo (1999), the number of companies
in TEST rounds was not too big. The obtained result suggests that the respondents were
risk averted. In the situation where the participants know that the financial result of their
company mostly depends on themselves, they more often decide to take risks involved
in choosing self-employment.
The profitability of self-employment depending on the market size
In the conducted experimental study the salary from self-employed work of all participants
in total in the round was 100PLN and did not depend on the market size. The results of the
study indicate that the average salary from self-employed work in the round was 1,13PLN
per person, which means that the number of participants opting for this form of employment was on average 4,1 higher than the market size. According to the hypothesis H2, the
profitability of self-employment do not depend on the market size. That is the number
of persons deciding to start business activity is directly determined by the market size. However, it is not a priori clear whether the results of the study will confirm the assumptions.
The main problem, very often occurring in this kind of studies, is the coordination of the
decisions made by the participants, which may result in the high changeability of results.
On the other hand, even when there is lack of coordination problems, the participants may
assess differently the expected profit of entering the small market which on which the salary is high and the probability of success low, and differently when entering the big market,
on which the proportions are reverse.
The results of the average salary from self-employed work depending on the market size
are presented in the picture 3 below.
Picture 3.
8
The average salary from self-employed work depending on the market size (W) (1 observation = 1 round).
6
4
2
0
-2
-4
-6
W2
W4
Average
W6
Me dian
W8
157
W2
W4
W6
W8
Average
0,92
1
0,75
1,87
Percentile 95
6,25
5
5
6,25
Percentile 75
2,5
2,5
2,5
3,75
Median
1,25
1,25
0
2,5
Percentile 25
0
0
-1,25
0
Percentile 5
-3,75
-3,75
-3,75
-2,5
Source:
Independent study.
The average profits obtained by the participants for the particular market size are similar
and are as following: W2 = 0,92, W4 = 1, W6 = 0,75, W8 = 1,87. As for the largest size (W8), the
profits were statistically higher than the other profits, which is confirmed by the conducted
non-parameter studies (Wilcoxon Test and Signs Test), the results of which are presented
in the table 4 below.
Table 4. The tests on the gravity of differences between the average profits obtained by
the participants from self-employed work depending on the market size (W).
Source:
N-6C
W2
W2
P=0,424 (p=0,671)
W4
W6
W6
P=0,61 (p=0,542)
P=0,571 (p=0,568)
W8
P=3,571 (p=0,001)
P=3,031 (p=0,002)
P=3,402 (p=0,001)
N-6C
W2
W4
W6
W2
P=0,285 (p=0,776)
W6
P=0,465 (p=0,642)
P=0,522 (p=0,602)
W8
P=2,82 (p=0,005)
P=3,005 (p=0,003)
P=3,586 (p=0,001
Independent study.
It is worth emphasising that in the rounds W8 as many as 50% of participants among all
respondents achieved success (let’s remind, in each group there were 16 participants)
and the expected salary from self-employed work was not negative for the number of companies not higher than 13. It means that undertaking this form of employment was profitable when the expected number of companies was lower than 13/16 = 81,25%. The average profits obtained in rounds W8 at the level of 1,87PLN means that the average number
of persons choosing self-employment in the rounds was 11,5, which constituted almost
72% of all participants. The remaining 28% of participants chose contract work, which may
have resulted from strong risk aversion5. The hypothesis H2 was confirmed, with the exception of the biggest market.
Summarising the obtained results, the market has been balanced, which points to the risk
aversion of the participants in the context of the undertaken form of employment. Significantly, in LOS rounds the risk of self-employed work was awarded with positive expected
profits. However, in LOS rounds the awareness of the respondents of their influence on running the company resulted in a higher number of persons choosing self-employment.
5
158
In reality there is a certain rate of persons who, independently of the situation on the market, do not want to run
business activity, which results from their strong risk aversion in the context of the undertaken form of employment. This phenomenon could be accounted for the fact that higher profits in rounds W8 compared to the other
rounds. A detailed analysis of this issue will be conducted in the sub-chapter 5.4.
The participants showed greater activeness connected with entrepreneurship when the
risk involved in running business activity depended on them – on their knowledge, experience and the decisions made by them, and not on the outer factors on which they had
no direct influence. Thus, the question remains: Were there big differences in this aspect
among the participants? Did the women make different decisions than the men? Did the
entrepreneurs differ from non-entrepreneurs? The answers to these questions are presented in subchapter 4.3.
The differences in the form of employment among the participants
In order to present initially the difference in the form of employment among the participants, the picture presenting the density of the division of self-employment in reference
to the participants should be referred to.
Picture 4. The division of the frequency of undertaking self-employment by the participants (1 observation = 1 participant).
The number of participants ( %)
25%
20%
15%
10%
5
0
Percentile 5
Percentile 25
Median
Percentile 75
Percentile 95
0%
29,17%
62,50%
83,33%
100%
Source:
Independent study.
The picture above presents the frequency of undertaking self-employment by the participants. The particular observations present the frequency of the choosing of this form
of employment, as the average from all rounds, in reference to other participants (160
observations in total). The average participant chose self-employment in 56,8% of all cases.
However, there is a great differentiation between the particular studies (the standard deviation is 32,4%). The respondents can be divided into 4 basic groups:
(i) persons always, or almost always, choosing contract work – 15% of the respondents
chose self-employment with the frequency lower than 10%, although as many as 9,38%
of the participants never chose this form of employment;
(ii) persons choosing self-employment rather seldom(the frequency 20% - 40%), only in particular situations – 13,75% of the participants;
(iii) persons choosing self-employment rather often (the frequency 50% - 80%), though
remembering about an alternative form of employment – 39,38% of participants;
159
(iv) persons always, or almost always, choosing self-employment – 20% of the participants chose self-employment with the frequency higher than 90%, however, as many as
13,75% of the participants chose this form of employment in all rounds.
The big number of the participants in the group (i) accounts for higher profits obtained
in the rounds in which the market size was the highest - it was 8. Some respondents always
chose a secure form of employment independently of the values of experimental variables,
thanks to which in rounds W8 the competition among the self-employed was lower than
in the rounds with smaller market size (W2, W4 and W6). A detailed analysis of the determinants of undertaking self-employment will be presented further on when the hypotheses
H3_1 and H3_2, referring to the influence of gender and entrepreneurship on the undertaken form of employment, have been verified.
The hypotheses H3_1 and H3_2, put forward in this study, suggest that the frequency
of choosing the particular forms of employment depends, on the one hand, on gender and ,
on the other hand, on the fact whether the person is an entrepreneur. Picture 5 presents
the comparison of the frequency of choosing self-employment by men (M) and women (K),
and entrepreneurs (P) and non-entrepreneurs (NP). The division of the frequency of choosing self-employment by the participants in terms of gender and entrepreneurship is included in the attachment 3.
Picture 5. The frequency of choosing self-employment by the participants in terms of gender and entrepreneurship.
100%
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
K
M
P
Average
Average
Me dian
K
M
P
NP
60,10%
53,49%
66,24%
49,63%
Percentile 95
100%
100%
100%
100,00%
Percentile 75
88%
75,00%
91,67%
75,00%
Median
66,67%
58,33%
66,67%
58,33%
Percentile 25
33,33%
29,17%
54,17%
20,83%
Percentile 5
0,00%
0,00%
8%
0%
Source:
160
NP
Independent study.
According to the hypothesis put forward in the study and being in accordance with the real
observations of the market, the men more often than women choose self-employment.
The results of the study indicated that it is the women who more often choose this form
of employment (on average in 60,1% of the cases compared to 53,49% of men). The conducted U Mann-Whitney test pointed to the statistical non-gravity of differences between
the frequency of choosing self-employment by men and women (P=1,403; p=0,161). However, comparing the decisions made by the entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. The frequency of choosing self-employment was higher than in the other group of participants
(the average rates are respectively 66,21% and 49,63%). The U Mann-Whitney test confirmed the statistical gravity of the existing differences (P=3,084; p=0,002).
In order to verify the hypotheses H3_1 and H3_2, the comparative analysis of the four
groups of the respondents was presented in the picture below: female entrepreneurs (KP),
male entrepreneurs (MP), female non-entrepreneurs (KNP) and male non-entrepreneurs
(MNP).
Picture 6.
100%
The frequency of choosing self-employment by the participants belonging to the particular categories.
80%
60%
40%
20%
0%
KP
MP
KNP
Average
Average
MNP
Me dian
KP
MP
KNP
MNP
68,75%
63,81%
53,71%
45,46%
Percentile 95
100%
100%
100%
95,83%
Percentile 75
100%
83,33%
83,33%
70,83%
Median
70,83%
66,67%
60,42%
50,00%
Percentile 25
54,17%
50,00%
29,17%
16,67%
Percentile 5
8,33%
4,17%
0%
0%
Source:
Independent study.
161
Table 5.
U Mann-Whitney test on the statistical gravity of differences in the frequency of choosing
self-employment between the particular categories of the participants.
KP
MP
KP
P=0,852 (p=0,394)
KNP
P=2,013 (p=0,044)
P=1,205 (p=0,228)
MNP
P=3,08 (p=0,002)
P=2,436 (p=0,015)
Source:
KNP
P=1,238 (p=0,216)
Independent study.
Picture 6 clearly shows that the entrepreneurs more often chose self-employment than
the non-entrepreneurs. This relation appeared both among women (the average were
respectively: 68,75% and 53,71%) and among men (the average was respectively: 63,81%
and 45,46%). The conducted U Mann-Whitney test proved the statistical gravity of differences, which is presented in table 5.
Finally, the hypothesis H3_2 ,suggesting that entrepreneurs more often choose self-employment than non-entrepreneurs and this difference refers to the groups of men and women,
has been confirmed. Persons running or intending to run business activity are more willing
to take risks as for the form of employment than persons who do not plan to run business
activity. The choices of the participants made in the laboratory environment confirmed
their actual choices, which was not a priori determined. This result shows that persons running business activity are entrepreneurs of their own accord, and not due to lack of alternative – they prefer self-employment and the consequences connected with it rather than
contract work. On the other hand, persons not planning to run business activity prefer the
secure income – even at the expense of its amount, which they confirmed when choosing
contract work more often.
What is surprising, however, is lack of statistical gravity of differences in the frequency
of choosing self-employment by men and women, which refers to both entrepreneurs
and non-entrepreneurs (table 2). This observation is in contrast with the actual situation
on the market. In reality, women more often than men choose self-employment, and the
difference is particularly noticeable in the group of non-entrepreneurs, which the hypothesis H3_1 suggest. The obtained result means that there is no difference among genders
in the attitude towards risk connected with insecurity of income. Women as often as men,
maybe even more often, choose self-employment and the irregularity of income connected with it. The result among non-entrepreneurs is particularly surprising. The study indicated that there is a relatively small rate of women (compared to men) who, on the one
hand, are not willing to run business activity and, on the other hand, are characterised
by strong aversion to the insecurity of income. Only 19,57% of female non-entrepreneurs
chose self-employment in less than 10% of all cases compared to 24,44% of male nonentrepreneurs. Thus, it is not true that women more often than men choose contract work
fully aware, treating self-employment as a worse alternative, so the hypothesis H3_1 has
been rejected.
The issue of effectiveness of female entrepreneurship support programmes in Poland may
result from the fact that there is a relatively high rate of women, compared to men, who
are fully aware that they do not want to run business activity. These decisions may be influenced by their attitude to taking risks and the existing cultural norms, main life objectives,
162
matrimonial and procreational plans. In the surveyed test sample there were no statistically
important differences between men and women. That is why the results of the conducted study indicate that the programmes aimed at increasing female entrepreneurship may
result in levelling the rates of companies established and run by men and women. However,
it should be remembered that in the surveyed group there were persons at the young age,
at which decisions about forms of employment are made. Moreover, the survey focused
on persons of the greatest professional potential, for whom there are the slimmest chances
of running business activity, that is, students of the last years of economic and managerial
departments of the main schools of higher education in Poland. It made it possible to conduct the research among a relatively homogenic sample test – persons who are in a similar
social group and do not differ significantly in terms of invisible specific features. That is why
the results cannot be generalised in terms of the whole of Poland. Surely, the situation will
be different in the country among persons with no higher education and of different age.
In that case the differences regarding gender may appear to be significant, and the effectiveness of female entrepreneurship support programmes is definitely restricted to a large
degree. However, in the surveyed group of people there were no statistically important differences in the attitude towards the form of undertaken employment in terms of gender,
so there is no basis for such differences to occur in the market reality. The state support
aimed at facilitating and speeding up the process of levelling female and male participation
among all entrepreneurs is definitely intentional in this case.
The determinants of entrepreneurship accounting for the
reasons for differences among the participants of particular
groups
This part of the study constitutes an attempt to explain the differences in choices made the
participants of the research. The basic reason may be the different assessment of the skills
and abilities the participants have, which will be analysed in part 5.1.
The analysis of the choices of the participants belonging
to particular categories in terms of the round type and the
market size
The verification of the hypotheses H1 and H2 showed the influence of the round type
and no influence of the market size on the decisions made by the participants about the
form of undertaken employment. It is surprising whether the persons belonging to all categories more often chose self-employment in the rounds with the ranking list based on the
results of the entrepreneurship test rather than based on the random factor?, or such a corelation occurs among the entrepreneurs? Did the men and the women similarly estimate
their profits when they depended on their knowledge?, or Are there any differences among
them in this matter? In order to provide answers to these questions, the following hypothesis was verified:
H4: Persons belonging to all categories of the respondents more often choose self-employment when their salary depends mainly on their knowledge and skills than on the random factor. Moreover, the entrepreneurs are more self-confident and assess their knowledge higher than the non-entrepreneurs. However, there is lack of differences in terms
of gender.
163
This hypothesis suggests that the participants of all categories believed that the choice
of self-employment would be more favourable to them in TEST rounds rather than in LOS
rounds. As these rounds differ from one another only with the method of creating the ranking list of the companies, on average only 50% of the participants will be ranked higher,
and the remaining 50% of the participants will be ranked lower than in the rounds in which
the result depended on the random factor. That is why the confirmation of this thesis will
signify that the participants overestimated their knowledge on entrepreneurship. Moreover, the hypothesis H4 suggests that the entrepreneurs are more self-confident and assess
their knowledge higher than the non-entrepreneurs. There are no differences between
men and women. The verification of the hypothesis H4 will be conducted on the basis
of three sub-hypothesis:
H4_1: The frequency of choosing self-employment among the participants of each category is higher in TEST rounds than in LOS rounds.
H4_2: The participation of entrepreneurs among the respondents choosing self-employment was higher in TEST rounds than in LOS rounds.
H4_3: The participation of women among all the respondents choosing self-employment
was the same in TEST round and LOS rounds.
The frequency of choosing self-employment by the participants belonging to the particular
categories in TEST rounds and LOS rounds is presented in table 6.
Table 6.
The frequency of choosing self-employment by the particular categories of respondents
depending on the ranking list method.
LOS
TEST
KP
66,4%
71,1%
7,0%
MP
59,0%
68,6%
16,1%
KNP
50,9%
56,5%
11,0%
MNP
40,7%
50,2%
23,2%
Source:
Change
Independent study.
As the results show, the participants belonging to all categories more often decided on selfemployment in TEST
rounds than in LOS rounds. Wilcoxon test pointed to the statistical gravity of differences
among the participants in terms of both gender and entrepreneurship6, which means that
the hypothesis H4_1 has been confirmed. The size of the changes was not identical. On the
one hand, the men were more self-confident than the women and the percentage change
of the frequency of choosing self-employment in TEST rounds and in LOS rounds was higher. On the other hand, surprisingly the change among the non-entrepreneurs was bigger
than among the entrepreneurs.
These observations are confirmed by the comparison of the average participation of the
particular categories of the respondents among all persons undertaking self-employment
depending on the round type, which is presented in table 7.
6�����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The results of Wilcoxon test comparing the frequency of undertaking self-employment for the particular cat-
164
egories of the participants are the following: women P=2,392, p=0,017, men P=2,961, p=0,003, entrepreneurs
P=2,076, p=0,038, non-entrepreneurs P=3,537, p<0,001.
Table 7.
The average participation of the respondents of the particular categories among all persons undertaking self-employment depending on the ranking list method (one round =
one observation).
LOS
TEST
The rate of change
KP
27,4%
25,1%
-8,6%
MP
23,9%
25,6%
7,0%
KNP
27,8%
27,4%
-1,3%
20,9%
21,9%
5,0%
MNP
Source:
Independent study.
The participation of women among all persons undertaking self-employment was lower
in the rounds in which the ranking list was based on the entrepreneurship test than
in the rounds with the ranking method based on the random factor. The conducted U
Mann-Whitney test and Kołmogorow-Smirnow test showed the statistical gravity of differences regarding gender7, thus the hypothesis H4_3 has been rejected. It suggests that
the women expected a lower score in the test than men. Interestingly, The biggest drop
in income was noted in the case of the female entrepreneurs. It resulted from the highest
frqeuency of choosing self-employment by them among all categories of the participants
in LOS rounds (average 66,4%). The change in the ranking list method led to a relatively low
increase in the frequency (average 71,1%); however, the participants of this category still
chose this form of employment more often. The participation of the men among all respondents choosing self-employments increased, which refers to both the entrepreneurs (the
average increase by 7%) and the non-entrepreneurs (the average increase by 5%). The conducted tests pointed to the statistical non-gravity of differences in terms of entrepreneurship8, thus the hypothesis H4_2 has also been rejected.
Summarising the conducted analyses, regardless of gender and entrepreneurship, the
respondents more often chose self-employment in the rounds in which the salary for this
form of employment mainly depended on themselves (their knowledge), and not on the
random factor. It signifies that the participants belonging to each category expected their
knowledge to enable them to make higher profits. Contrary to all expectations, there were
no differences in the behaviour of the entrepreneurs and the non-entrepreneurs. It is possible that the experience of the entrepreneurs suggested that the theoretical knowledge
checked in the entrepreneurship test is not in accordance with their practical knowledge
and experience. As a result, the chances of scoring well in the entrepreneurship test are levelled among the entrepreneurs and the non-entrepreneurs. However, it is surprising that
the female participation among all persons undertaking self-employment dropped in TEST
rounds. On the one hand, women might have been more careful than men at the profit
assessment, on the other hand, they might have rightly predicted that their knowledge
on entrepreneurship is worse than that of men. That is why in part 5.2. the test results of the
participants of the particular categories will be compared.
7����������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The results of the tests comparing the statistical significancy of differences in the change of the percentage partic-
ipation of men and women, caused by the change in the ranking list method, are the following: U Mann-Whitney
test P=-2,743, p=0,006, and Kołmogorow-Smirnow test D= -0,125, p<0,05.
8��������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������������
The results of the tests comparing the statistical gravity of differences in the change of the percentage participation of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, caused by the change in the ranking list method, are the following:
U Mann-Whitney test P=-0,706, p=0,48, and Kołmogorow-Smirnow test D=-0,05, p>0,1.
165
The knowledge on entrepreneurship
Hypothesis H4 referred to the assessment of one’s own knowledge. One may wonder what
the actual level of knowledge is and whether there are differences in this matter among the
particular categories of the participants. The following hypothesis H5 may be put forward,
which will be verified on the basis of two sub-hypotheses. respectively H5_1 and H5_2:
H5: Entrepreneurs have the same level of entrepreneurship knowledge like non-entrepreneurs. Similarly, there are no differences in terms of gender.
H5_1: Entrepreneurs got the same results in the entrepreneurship test like non-entrepreneurs.
H5_2: Women got the same result in the entrepreneurship test like men.
The results in the entrepreneurship test are presented in picture 7. The differences between
the participants belonging to the particular categories are very small. On average, the entrepreneurs got a similar result to the result of the non-entrepreneurs. Comparing the results
in terms of gender, it could be observed that the women rightly predicted the low score
in the test. The women, both the entrepreneurs and the non-entrepreneurs, on average got
the score by 0,5 point (maximum -11 points) than men. These differences appeared to be
statistically unimportant. Thus, the hypothesis H5 has been confirmed.
Picture 7.
12
The results of the entrepreneurship test according to the division of the participants
belonging to the particular categories.
10
8
6
4
2
0
KP
MP
KNP
Average
Average
Me dian
KP
MP
KNP
MNP
6,79
7,43
6,78
7,27
Percentile 95
10
10
10
10
Percentile 75
8
10
9
9
Median
7
7
7
8
Percentile 25
6
6
5
6
Percentile 5
4
4
3
4
Source:
166
MN
Independent study.
Summarising the conducted analysis, the participants of the experimental study, regardless
of gender and entrepreneurship, chose more often self-employment when they knew that
running business activity would depend mainly on them – on the knowledge, skills, experience and engagement, and not on fate and luck. It signifies that the increase in entrepreneurship, both male and female, could be achieved by simplifying the procedures connected with starting and running one’s own business activity. Thanks to that the entrepreneurs
will be able to focus their attention on what should be the most important for them, that
is on the work directly connected with running business and will be more willing to choose
this form of employment.
The expected number of companies
The reason for a great diversity of decisions made by the particular participants may have
been the difference in the expected number of persons undertaking self-employment.
Firstly, it should be checked whether the majority of the participants were able to estimate
accurately the number of participants who decided on self-employment in the particular
round, which is the basis for the hypothesis H6_1.
H6_1: The participants estimated accurately estimated the number of participants who
decided on self-employment in the particular round.
Picture 8 presents the density of division of the variable which is the difference between the
expected and the actual number of companies.
Picture 8.
The division of the error of the prognosis about the number of participants who decided
on self-employment in the particular round.
(%)
25%
The number of
observations
20%
15%
10%
5%
0%
N _ expected -N _ actual
Percentile 5
Percentile 25
Median
Percentile 75
Percentile 95
-3
-1
0
-1
4
Source:
Independent study.
The average error was 0,16 with the standard deviation 2,06. The conducted test proved
that there is no evidence to reject the zero hypothesis suggesting that the average error
was zero. Thus, the hypothesis H6_1 has been confirmed. The participants made conscious
decisions about the form of employment being able to predict the power of the market
competition.
167
One may wonder, though, whether the discrepancies among the respondents referring
to the frequency of choosing self-employment resulted from the assessment of the power
of the market competition. It could be assumed that the participants who underestimated
the number of companies more often entered the market than the persons who overestimated their number. The following hypothesis could be put forward.
H6_2: The difference in the frequency of undertaking self-employment among the respondents results from different assessments in terms of the expected number of companies
on the market. The persons who underestimated the competition on the market more
often undertook self-employment than the persons who overestimated it.
Table 8 presents the rates of Spearman co-relation between the particular variables on the
level of the participants (N=160). The parts in bold refer to the statistically important corelations.
Table 8.
The rates of Spearman co-relation between the particular variables (1 participant = 1
observation).
Work
Test
Test
Expected
number
Actual number
R=0,003 (p=0,671)
Expected number R=0,292 (p=0,542) R=0,069 (p=0,384)
Actual number
R=0,213 (p=0,001) R=0,101 (p=0,202) R=0,931 (p=0,001)
Expected n Actual n
R=0,252 (p=0,001)
Source:
R=0,036 (p=0,65)
R=0,223 (p=0,005) R=0,088 (p=0,267)
Independent study.
The obtained results enable to confirm the hypothesis put forward earlier – there is lack
of co-relation between the test result and the frequency of choosing self-employment as
well as there is a strong positive co-relation between the expected and the actual number
of companies on the market. There was also a positive co-relation between the expected
number of companies and the frequency of choosing self-employment, which could be
accounted for by the variable of the market size. When it comes to the market size of 6 an d
8, persons were both willing to enter the market and expect a large number of participants
on it. The persons who often chose self-employment overestimated the expected number
of companies. This result is explained by the so-called „false consensus effect”, that is the
tendency to attribute your views to other persons. According to this concept, persons who
want to be self-employed think that others will also choose this form of employment as
it is profitable indeed. Since all the participants have the same information on the research,
there is no evidence why the other persons would think differently from us. Analogically,
the persons who choose contract work mainly underestimate the number of companies
on the market believing that the other participants also consider this form of employment
to be the best.
H6_3: More frequent decisions about self-employment in TEST rounds than in LOS rounds
resulted from the underestimation of the level of the competition in the rounds of the
one type and the overestimation in the rounds of the other type.
168
The results presented in table 9 confirm the hypothesis. In LOS rounds the participants
more often overestimated the number of companies than in TEST rounds, in which underestimation was more common.
Table 9.
The estimation of the number of the participants deciding on self-employment in the
rounds of the particular types.
Underestimation
Accuracy
Overestimation
LOS
32,40%
17,34%
50,26%
TEST
42,14%
23,70%
34,17%
37,27%
20,52%
42,21%
ALL
Source:
Independent study.
The results above are confirmed by the analysis of the difference between the estimated
and the actual number of companies. The average for the participants of all categories was
higher than zero in LOS rounds and lower than zero in TEST rounds. The overestimation
of the expected number of companies occurred independently of gender and entrepreneurship. Similarly, the participants of all categories slightly underestimated the competition of the market in TEST rounds, which is shown in table 10.
Table 10.
The difference between the estimated and the actual number of companies in reference
to the participants of the particular categories according to the round type (1 observation
= 1 estimation in the round).
LOS
TEST
TOTAL
KP
0,75
-0,07
0,34
MP
0,35
-0,11
0,12
KNP
0,42
-0,29
0,07
MNP
0,41
-0,13
0,14
0,47
-0,16
0,16
Average
Source:
Independent study.
The obtained results lead to a very important conclusion. In the case when the number
of the participants mainly
depends on the outer factors which they cannot influence directly, they relatively seldom
decide on self-employment expecting stronger competition on the market than it really
is. It is the effect of assuring oneself that the decision is right: „I chose contract work as
self-employed work is not profitable. Surely, the competition on the market will be strong
and I will not be able to have any influence on the profit.” In TEST rounds, in which the participants were aware of the big influence on the salary, they more often undertook selfemployment. The decision to enter the market was connected with the risk involved in the
undertaking, that is why in order to increase it the participants analysed the market more
thoroughly to estimate the competition properly. However, they underestimated the number of the companies on the market on the basis of prognoses being too optimistic, which
is a common phenomenon: „I undertake self-employment as it is profitable for me – few
participants will opt for this solution.”
The increase in both female and male entrepreneurship can be achieved by means of simple and clear administrative and legal procedures in terms of starting and running business activity. Moreover, entrepreneurship support programmes are necessary; they should
169
aimed at trainings and advice on how to understand the binding regulations. All these factors will lead to the situation when the persons who decide on self-employment will be
able to focus their attention on the work directly connected with their business activity,
feeling that their efforts, knowledge and skills, not the bureaucratic issues, influence the
prosperity of their company. Additionally, thanks to such actions, self-employment will be
undertaken mainly by competent persons who have broad knowledge and skills to run
business activity, which may result in lower rates of companies going bankrupt.
Attitudes towards taking risks, emotions, trust
Another reason for the differences between the categories of the participants is their attitude to taking risks. The results of numerous research indicate that women have stronger
risk aversion the men. One may wonder whether the pledged results are in accordance
with the actual decisions. The following hypothesis should be put forward:
H7_1: Women have stronger risk aversion than men. This difference is noticeable particularly when it comes to the actual decisions, though it may also be visible in terms of the
pledged decisions.
Comparing the attitude to taking risks by entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, it is not
a priori clear whether there are any discrepancies in this matter. The increased frequency of choosing self-employment by the entrepreneurs may result from stronger risk aversion of the non-entrepreneurs. On the other hand, the entrepreneurs may find the decision
about self-employment less risky, compared to the non-entrepreneurs. Thus, the following
hypothesis was put forward:
H7_2: Entrepreneurs have the same attitude to taking risks as non-entrepreneurs, but they
consider the decision about running business activity to be less risky.
The confirmation of the above hypotheses will signify that the lower rate of female participation, compared to male
participation, among all entrepreneurs resulted from the difference in their preferences as
for different forms of employment, which occur among persons of different gender. Women
prefer the secure income without taking risks connected with running business activity.
Men, however, opt for the reverse situation, that is being self-employed they are more willing to accept the irregularity of income. Moreover, the support forms used to increase the
female and male entrepreneurship may be effective as long as they are aimed at increasing the awareness of the society about the actual risk connected with being self-employed
and running business activity. A high rate of the society avoids running business activity
because they seem to believe that it is connected with bigger risk, compared to the persons who actually choose this form of employment.
In the experimental study, the participants’ attitude to taking risks was assessed by means
of three independent methods testing: (i) the pledged risk; (ii) risk taken in a hypothetical situation; (iii) risk actually taken in the context of the choice of the employment form.
The first approach meant that the participants were asked a closed question: „What is your
attitude to taking risks?”. The answers in terms of the division into categories are presented
in table 11.
170
Table 11. The participants’ attitude towards taking risks – the pledged risk.
I like taking even
big risks
I like taking only
slight
risks,
I avoid
taking
big risks
I don’t
think
about
risks
involved
when
making
a decision
I rather
don’t
take risks
I definitely
avoid
risky situations
Difficult
to say
I like taking risks
KP
8,8%
64,7%
5,9%
11,8%
5,9%
2,9%
73,5%
MP
14,3%
57,1%
5,7%
20,0%
0,0%
2,9%
71,4%
KNP
6,5%
43,5%
6,5%
39,1%
4,3%
0,0%
50,0%
MNP
11,1%
53,3%
2,2%
28,9%
2,2%
2,2%
64,4%
Total
10%
53,8%
5,0%
26,3%
3,1%
1,9%
63,8%
Source:
Independent study.
The last column „I like taking risks” constitutes the sum of answers „I like taking even big risks”
and „I like taking only slight risks, I avoid taking big risks”. On its basis it could be claimed that
entrepreneurs like taking risks more often than non-entrepreneurs (regardless of gender).
Among persons who avoid taking risks, the highest rate (50%) is in the group of female nonentrepreneurs. It signifies that these women are not entrepreneurs of their own accord,
and it will be difficult to make them change their mind even by means of support programmes.
In the second method of testing the attitude towards taking risks the participants were
to make two independent choices:
(a) „Imagine that you receive the salary of 3000 PLN. Which situation will you choose?
(i) Secure onus of 1000 PLN; (ii) Lottery in which the bonus is 0 PLN (50% of chances) or the bonus of 2000 PLN (50% of chances).”
(b) „Imagine that you receive the salary of 5000 PLN. Which situation will you choose?
(i) 0: Secure loss of 1000 PLN; (ii) Lottery in which the loss is 0 PLN (50% of chances) or the loss of 2000 PLN (50% of chances).”
The above choices, from the theoretical point of view, are identical and could be come
down to the decision: (i) secure salary of 4000 PLN; (ii) Lottery, in which the payment is 5000
PLN (50% of chances) or 3000 PLN (50% of chances). Thus, the results of these choices
should be identical. However, it appears that the words „loss” i „bonus” have a strong emotional influence on the respondents, who treat the above decisions differently, not comparable directly, due to which they very often make different choices – which is presented
in table 12.
171
Table 12.
The participants’ attitude towards taking risks – a hypothetical situations.
Lottery - bonus (% of risk takers)
Lottery – loss ( % of risk takers)
KP
32,4%
82,4%
MP
31,4%
57,1%
KNP
15,2%
63,0%
MNP
13,3%
42,2%
Total
21,9%
60,0%
Source:
Independent study.
The obtained results point to the stronger aversion to loss than the urge for bonus, which
is in accordance with the results of other research. In the bonus lottery the majority of the
participants (78,1%) chose the secure bonus. In this case there was a noticeable difference
between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs – the former more often took risks to get
a higher bonus (about 32%) than the latter (about 14%). The difference in terms of gender
was statistically unimportant. In the loss lottery the participants definitely more often took
risks without accepting the secure loss. On the one hand, entrepreneurs more often chose
the lottery, in which they were not able to make a loss. On the other hand, women definitely more often than men decided to take such risks without accepting the loss of money.
Although only 73,5% of female entrepreneurs and 50% of female non-entrepreneurs
declared that they liked taking risks, as many as 82,4% of female entrepreneurs and 63%
of female non-entrepreneurs actually took risks in order to avoid the secure loss.
Finally, the third method of testing the attitude towards taking risks was in the form
of a series of choices about the form of employment in the successive rounds. According to the analyses presented earlier in the report, entrepreneurs more often declared
to undertake self-employment than non-entrepreneurs. However, there are no statistically
important differences between men and women. In the table below the results of all three
methods are presented.
Table 13.
The participants’ attitude towards taking risks – the general list.
I like taking risks
Lottery – bonus
(% of risk takers)
Lottery – loss
(% of risk takers)
Self-employment
KP
73,5%
32,4%
82,4%
68,8%
MP
71,4%
31,4%
57,1%
63,8%
KNP
50,0%
15,2%
63,0%
53,7%
MNP
64,4%
13,3%
42,2%
45,5%
Total
63,8%
21,9%
60,0%
56,8%
Source:
Independent study.
In conclusion, there are no significant differences between men and women in terms
of their attitude towards taking risks. The obtained results do not confirm the thesis that the
women’s aversion to undertake the work in which the income is relatively unstable is the
reason for a relatively low female participation among all entrepreneurs. However, there
are discrepancies between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs. The former more often
declare and take actual risks than the latter. Thus, these persons are more willing to undertake work characterised by the irregularity of income.
172
Trust:
Another determinant of entrepreneurship can be trust. One may wonder whether there
is a difference in trust towards people among men and women. Does the entrepreneurs’
experience in work with others increase their trust towards others, or it is otherwise? In
order to find answers to these issues, the participants of the experimental study were asked
to choose the best answer, in their opinion, to the following question: „Generally speaking,
do you think people can be trusted or you have to be careful when dealing with them?” The
results are presented in table 14.
Table 14.
The participants’ attitude towards taking risk – the general list.
I can
almost
always
trust people
You should
Generally
almost
you should
Generally
always be
be careful
people can
careful
when dealbe trusted
when dealing with
ing with
people
people
Difficult
to say
People can
be trusted
KP
2,9%
17,6%
61,8%
14,7%
2,9%
20,6%
MP
2,9%
28,6%
51,4%
14,3%
2,9%
31,4%
KNP
2,2%
30,4%
50,0%
10,9%
6,5%
32,6%
MNP
0,0%
46,7%
35,6%
13,3%
4,4%
46,7%
Total
2%
31,9%
48,8%
13,1%
4,4%
33,8%
Source:
Independent study.
The last column „People can be trusted” is the sum of answers „You can almost always trust
people” and „Generally people can be trusted”. On its basis it could be claimed that entrepreneurs trust people less than non-entrepreneurs. Moreover, women trust people less
than men. The least trustful group is the category of female entrepreneurs, and the most
trustful are male non-entrepreneurs.
Emotions:
The spontaneity of decision-making was also tested. The results are presented in table 15.
Table 15.
The participants’ attitude towards taking risk – the general list.
I usually
make spontaneous
decisions,
driven by
emotions
I equally
I usually
often make contemplate
spontaneous before makand thoughting a deciout decisions
sion
Difficult
to say
Emotional
attitude
KP
17,6%
47,1%
35,3%
0,0%
64,7%
MP
5,7%
42,9%
51,4%
0,0%
48,6%
KNP
4,3%
58,7%
34,8%
2,2%
63,0%
MNP
8,9%
46,7%
42,2%
2,2%
55,6%
Total
9%
49,4%
40,6%
1,3%
58,1%
Source:
Independent study.
It was assumed that the emotional attitude towards making decisions (the last column)
characterises persons who to the question: „How do you make decisions?” gave the following answer: „I usually make spontaneous decisions, driven by emotions” or „I equally often
173
make spontaneous and thought-out decisions”. The results prove that women are more
emotional and spontaneous at making decisions than men. However, there is lack of differences between entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs.
The comprehensive model of regression
In order to assess the entrepreneurship determinants comprehensively, the ligit model was
estimated with random effects (random-effects logistic regression). The data were obtained
by the means of panel structure – 24 observations for each of 160 participants. The total
number of observations was 3840. The explanatory variable was the form of undertaken
employment (work). Below there is a detailed description of the particular variables included in the model.
Work
The form of employment: 0 - contract, 1 - self-employed
Type
Experimental variable defining the way of creating the ranking list in the particular round: 0-random, 1-test
Size
Experimental variable defining the market size in the particular round: 2, 4, 6, or 8
Excess
The difference between the predicted number of the participants deciding
on self-employment in the particular round apart from us and the size marker
Entrepreneurship
Is the participant entrepreneurial?
0: I run or plan my business activity or run courses, trainings or other forms
of business activity
1: I do not run any business activity
Gender
The gender of the respondent: 0 – woman, 1 – men
Test
The number of correct answers in the test
Pref_1 (L bonus)
Imagine you receive payment of 3000 PLN. Which will you choose?
0: Safe bonus of 1000 PLN
1: Lottery, with bonus of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or bonus of 2000 PLN (50%
of chances)
Pref_2 (L loss)
Imagine you receive payment of 5000 PLN. Which will you choose?
0: Safe loss 1000 PLN
1: Lottery with loss of 0 PLN (50% of chances) or loss of 2000 PLN (50% of chances)
Risk *
What is your attitude to taking risks and gambling?
0: I like taking even big risks
1: I like taking only small risks, I avoid taking big risks
2: I do not think about the risk when making a decision
3: I do not rather take risks
4: I definitely avoid risky situations
5: Difficult to say
Trust *
Generally speaking, do you think that people should be trusted ,or you should be
careful when dealing with people?
0:You can almost always trust people
1: Generally, people can be trusted
2: Generally, you should be careful when dealing with people
3: You should almost always be careful when dealing with people
4: Difficult to say
Emotions *
How do you make decisions?
0: I usually make spontaneous decisions, driven by emotions
1: I equally often make spontaneous and thought-out decisions
2: I usually contemplate before making a decisions
3: Difficult to say
* As the variables: Risk, Trust and Emotions cannot be presented in the form of a scale, so they were
analysed as qualitative variables, where the basis value is 0.
174
Model 1 – general:
Random-effects logistic regression
Group variable: id
Number of obs
Number of groups
=
=
3840
160
Random effects u_i ~ Gaussian
Obs per group: min =
avg =
max =
24
24.0
24
Log likelihood
= -1634.5646
Wald chi2(20)
Prob > chi2
=
=
413.31
0.0000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------wo r k |
Coef.
Std. Err.
z
P>|z|
[95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------En t r e p r e | -1.223896
.4572389
-2.68
0.007
-2.120068
-.3277246
Ge n d e r
| -.8694135
.448661
-1.94
0.053
-1.748773
.0099459
Ty p e |
.6877782
.0963309
7.14
0.000
.4989731
.8765834
Si z e |
.4518435
.0237822
19.00
0.000
.4052313
.4984557
Ex c e s s | -.1420564
.029347
-4.84
0.000
-.1995755
-.0845373
Te s t
| -.0314621
.1104546
-0.28
0.776
-.2479491
.185025
.5538579
1.27
0.206
-.384523
1.78656
Pref_1 |
.7010186
Pref_2 | -.9584642
.5006329
-1.91
0.056
-1.939687
.0227583
_iT r u s t _1
| -.4544835
1.590587
-0.29
0.775
-3.571977
2.66301
|
.0677128
1.573209
0.04
0.966
-3.01572
3.151146
_iT r u s t _2
_iT r u s t _3
| -.1391482
1.66057
-0.08
0.933
-3.393805
3.115509
|
.5990367 1.849987
0.32
0.746
-3.026871
4.224944
_iT r u s t _4
_iEmot i o n s _1| -.8304621
.8458048
-0.98
0.326
-2.488209
.8272848
.8414653
-1.20
0.230
-2.658756
.6397268
_iEmot i o n s _2| -1.009515
_iEmot i o n s _3| -.4315372
2.115614
-0.20
0.838
-4.578065
3.714991
.7849078
-2.22
0.026
-3.281496
-.2047139
_iRi s k _1 | -1.743105
1.182371
-1.46
0.145
-4.038547
.5962616
_iRi s k _2 | -1.721142
_iRi s k _3 | -3.461627
.8720297
-3.97
0.000
-5.170774
-1.752481
1.51083
-1.29
0.197
-4.909161
1.013184
_iRi s k _4 | -1.947989
1.673021
-1.88
0.060
-6.43082
.1273012
_iRi s k _5 | -3.151759
_cons | 3.205068
1.96951
1.63
0.104
-.6551003
7.065236
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------/lnsig2u |
1.849102
.1581691
1.539096
2.159108
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------sigma_u |
2.520737
.1993513
2.158791
2.943367
rho |
.6588682
.0355502
.5861929
.7247727
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Likelihood-ratio test of rho=0: chibar2(01) = 1273.63 Prob >= chibar2 = 0.000
The above results prove that the model is good and the parameters are statistically important altogether. Not all variables affected the decisions about entrepreneurship. In particular all levels of variables: Trust and Emotions and Test variable were insignificant statistically.
That is why the reduced model was estimated, excluding these variables.
175
Model 2 – reduced:
Random-effects logistic regression
Group variable: id
Number of obs
Number of groups
=
=
3840
160
Random effects u_i ~ Gaussian
Obs per group: min =
avg =
max =
24
24.0
24
Log likelihood
= -1636.0599
Wald chi2(12)
Prob > chi2
=
=
411.65
0.0000
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Work |
Coef.
Std. Err.
z
P>|z|
[95% Conf. Interval]
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------Entrep
| -1.295094
.4478799
-2.89
0.004
-2.172922
-.4172653
| -1.009986
.4435774
-2.28
0.023
-1.879382
-.1405904
Gender
Type
|
.6878977
.096334
7.14
0.000
.4990865
.8767089
Size
|
.4518503
.023782
19.00
0.000
.4052384
.4984622
| -.1422083
.0293489
-4.85
0.000
-.1997311
-.0846856
Excess
Pref_1 |
.7845291
.5563447
1.41
0.158
-.3058865
1.874945
Pref_2 | -.9144084
.4787118
-1.91
0.056
-1.852666
.0238495
_iRi sk _1 | -1.804342
.7583185
-2.38
0.017
-3.290619
-.3180655
_iRi sk _2 | -1.898279
1.166831
-1.63
0.104
-4.185226
.3886676
_iRi sk _3 | -3.497181
.8416118
-4.16
0.000
-5.14671
-1.847652
-1.87691
1.454329
-1.29
0.197
-4.727341
.9735223
_iRi sk _4 |
_iRi sk _5 | -3.044311
1.655001
-1.84
0.066
-6.288052
.199431
_cons |
2.167184
.941745
2.30
0.021
.3213979
4.012971
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------/lnsig2u |
1.872302
.1578559
1.562911
2.181694
-------------+---------------------------------------------------------------sigma_u |
2.550147
.2012779
2.184649
2.976795
rho |
.6640633
.035215
.5919574
.7292551
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------Likelihood-ratio test of rho=0: chibar2(01) = 1307.75 Prob >= chibar2 = 0.000
In order to check whether the omission of the variables does not worsen the model, LR test
was conducted testing the zero hypothesis suggesting that the omitted variables are significant altogether. There was LR statistics calculated and it was 2,99. LR statistics is in the form
of chi square with 8 levels of freedom. That is why P_value = 0,935, which signifies that there
is no basis to reject the zero hypothesis. Thus, model 2 – the reduced model is accurate.
In the obtained model the following variables appeared to be statistically important:
Entrepreneurship (Entrep – entrepreneurial persons chose self-employment more often.
Gender (Gender) – women more often than men chose self-employment. However, this
variable is not important at the level of p=0,01. In many models it was also not important
at the level of p=0,05. That is why the gravity of differences in terms of gender remains
a controversial issue. Surely, it can be stated that it is not true that men more often than
women chose self-employment.
The round type (Type) – in TEST rounds, in which the salary of the participants depended
on the entrepreneurship test results, the respondents chose self-employment than in LOS
rounds.
The market size (Size) – the bigger the market size, that is more companies can be successful, the more persons decided on self-employment.
176
The expected excess of the number of companies on the market (Excess) – the bigger
the expected difference between the number of companies on the market (apart from us)
and the size market, the less often the participants decided on self-employment. It signifies
that the expected level of the competition on the market influenced the participants’ decisions about self-employment.
The declared risk (IRisk) – the higher the declared risk, the more frequent the decision about
self-employment.
One may wonder that such features like emotions and spontaneity, trust or the risk taken
in the context of the amount of the salary did not account for the choices of the respondents about the form of undertaken employment. In the earlier part of the report it was
shown that these variables co-related with the Entrepreneurship variable, which affects the
frequency of choosing self-employment. These features influenced only indirectly (through
gender and entrepreneurship) the analysed choices.
Conclusions
In the report herein the experimental study has been presented, the main aim of which was
to examine the entrepreneurship determinants including the differences in terms of gender (men and women) and the form of employment (entrepreneurs vs non-entrepreneurs).
The participants of the research were graduates and students of last years of economic
and managerial departments of the main schools of higher education in Poland, that is persons at young age, having the specialised knowledge on self-employment and running
business activity. The experiment was modelled on the approach of Camerer and Lovallo
(1999). Apart from the comparison of entrepreneurs and non-entrepreneurs, an important
change was to give the study the specific context, which was aimed to increase the outer
accuracy of the study. Thus, the instructions of the experiment were not abstract, they clearly stated that the decisions the respondents made referred to the labour market, and the
test questions (on the basis of which the ranking list was created) checked the specific
knowledge on entrepreneurship.
Camerer i Lovallo (1999) conducted their research on students from economic and managerial departments of schools of higher education in the USA. The most important conclusion of their study was the optimism of the respondents (too great optimism), resulting
in an excessive number of established companies. According to the authors, that result
reflects the market reality, in which most of newly-established companies goes bankrupt.
What is more, despite the accessibility of unfavourable statistics in this field, new cohorts
of entrepreneurs establish new companies hoping that their undertaking will survive
and make a profit. This result was not confirmed in the research in the herein report. The
reverse tendency can even be seen – the respondents’ strong aversion to taking risks in the
context of the form of employment resulted in rarely made decisions about self-employment. Although the participants of the research accurately predicted that their expected
salary would be higher if they opted for self-employment, they decided on secure profits
with lower contract work salary.
This results directly leads to the conclusion that the need for entrepreneurship support may
be existent in Poland.
Indeed, one of the ways of supporting entrepreneurs is the restriction of the so-called outer
risk of self-employment. The term of outer risk refers to all factors affecting the position
of the company on which the owner has no direct influence and which do not consti-
177
tute the element of their activity, eg. complex procedures of starting and running business
activity, complicated tax systems (VAT tax rates), ineffective activities of courts and administration, difficulties with obtaining outer sources of financing and so forth. However,
it should be considered whether the actions aimed at lowering the outer risk of becoming
self-employed will result in the increase in the number of new companies on the market?
The obtained results, suggesting that the risk is the main barrier of starting one’s own business, incline to cautious optimism.
One of the significant questions posed by the authors was whether the visible in reality
differences in the number of companies run by men and women will also appear in the
experimental environment reality. It appears that they are not. Women undertaken selfemployment as often as men, in some cases even more often. Women and men behaved
in a similar way and made almost identical decisions. This result may indicate that the lower
number of female companies does not result from their conscious choices, but from more
severe, compared to men, restrictions (eg. social, family) which they come across in the outer
world and which were non-existent in the experiment. Of course, the results of the experiment should be treated carefully – it referred to a small and non-representative test sample
and enabled to analyse only a few aspects of the decision about starting business activity (connected with their attitude towards risk taking and self-confidence). The results are
in accordance with the results of qualitative and quantitative surveys presented in „Female
entrepreneurship in Poland” report, which points to the ongoing process of changes in the
traditional model of Polish families, in which the woman takes care of children and the man
provides financially for the family. It may be assumed on the basis of the experimental study
that the changes will result in the changes in the structure of the established companies,
which will level gradually.
Appendices
Appendix 1. The instruction of a sample experimental session
INSTRUCTION
Welcome!
We ask you to switch of your mobile phones and not to communicate with other participants of the experiment. If you have any questions, please raise your hand.
The experiment is anonymous: the other participants will not be able to say who made
which decisions and what result they scored and what salary they received.
On entering the experiment you have capital of 20 PLN. Your final salary received
in the experiment will depend on your decisions and the decisions of the experiment participants. Payment will be received on the completion of the experiment.
Each of 6 participants will play the role of an employee deciding on the form of employment: (i) contract work, or (ii) self-employment.
178
The experiment will consist of 24 round. The course of each of them will be the
following:
1. You will be given some information on the market size (the number of companies
which will be successful in the particular round), which directly influences the salary
received from self-employed work, as was explained below.
2. The participants in the particular round predict the number of persons who will decide
on self-employment and they choose themselves the form of undertaken employment.
3. The participants find out the number of the employees who decided on self-employment. The participants have also constant access to the history of all previous rounds.
Payment awarded for the participation in the experiment:
Your payment for the participation consists of three parts:
(i) Payment for the accurate number of the participants in the particular round who decided on self-employment: 0,5 PLN per correct answer.
(ii) Payment for work from in one of the selected rounds. The payment depended
on the selected form of employment. The payment form contract work is 0 PLN. The
payment from self-employed may be positive or negative. It depends on the market
size and on the ranking position of the company, which is presented below. The ranking position was created on the basis of entrepreneurship test result, which will
be conducted on the completion of all rounds of the experiment. The test result will
depend on the number of correct answers. If two or more persons have the same number of points, then the final order will be decided on the time of giving answers in the
test order. On the ranking list there are only these participants who chose self-employment in the particular round.
Payment from self-employed work
Market size
Ranking list
position
2
4
6
8
1
67 zł
40 zł
29 zł
22 zł
2
33 zł
30 zł
24 zł
19 zł
3
-20 zł
20 zł
19 zł
17 zł
4
-20 zł
10 zł
14 zł
14 zł
5
-20 zł
-20 zł
9 zł
11 zł
6
-20 zł
-20 zł
5 zł
8 zł
7
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
6 zł
8
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
3 zł
Others
-20 zł
-20 zł
-20 zł
-
Note:
the companies which did not achieve success make a loss of 20 PLN.
(iii) Payment for correct answers in the entrepreneurship test: 0,5 PLN per each correct
answer.
Example:
During the whole experiment the person predicted accurately 5 times the number of participants who decided on self-employment. The round was drawn in which the size market
was 4 and this person chose self-employment and was classified 3 on the ranking list. Moreover, the person scored 6 correct answers in the entrepreneurship test.
179
The payment for this person will be the following:
‚‚ capital at the beginning of the experiment: 20 PLN,
‚‚ payment for accurate prediction of the number of the participants being self-employed:
5*0,5 PLN = 2,5 PLN,
‚‚ the payment for the work in one drawn round: 20 PLN,
‚‚ payment for the correct answers in the entrepreneurship test: 3 PLN,
‚‚ total payment: 45,5 PLN.
Before the first paid round, there are three test rounds. Their purpose is to get familiar with the rules of the game – they have no influence on the salary. It is a good chance
to „experiment” using different strategies. It means that the choices of the other participants
may be significantly different than in paid rounds.
Raise your hand if you have any questions or press the button on the screen to continue.
Appendix 2. The average profit obtained from self-employed
work in the particular rounds and the experimental groups
depending on the round type.
The average profit obtained from self-employed work in LOS rounds:
Round
no.
Gr1
1
3,75
3,75
2
6,25
6,25
Gr2
Gr3
Gr4
Gr5
Gr6
Gr7
0
1,25
-2,5
1,25
Gr8
Gr9
Gr10
1,25
3,75
1,25
1,25
1,25
1,25
0
3,75
1,25
3,75
5
0
3
2,5
5
1,25
5
1,25
2,5
0
0
-1,25
2,5
4
1,25
0
1,25
3,75
5
5
0
0
0
3,75
5
1,25
3,75
-2,5
2,5
0
0
0
0
2,5
1,25
6
5
6,25
0
3,75
-3,75
0
1,25
0
-1,25
1,25
7
1,25
6,25
0
2,5
2,5
-1,25
0
-1,25
0
2,5
8
0
6,0625
1,25
2,5
1,25
5
3,75
3,75
2,5
1,25
9
3,75
5
2,5
3,75
2,5
2,5
1,25
3,75
1,25
3,75
10
0
2,5
0
3,75
0
1,25
-1,25
0
-1,25
0
11
3,75
3,75
1,25
3,75
2,5
0
1,25
2,5
0
3,75
12
0
6,25
-1,25
6,25
1,25
2,5
1,25
1,25
2,5
2,5
The average profit obtained from self-employed work in TEST rounds:
180
Round
no.
Gr1
Gr2
Gr3
Gr4
Gr5
Gr6
Gr7
Gr8
Gr9
Gr10
1
1,25
3,75
1,25
2,5
3,75
0
0
-2,5
-1,25
0
2
5
3,75
-2,5
1,25
5
1,25
-1,25
-6,25
-2,5
0
3
-1,25
2,5
0
3,75
-1,25
2,5
1,25
-3,75
-5
-2,5
4
5
2,5
-2,5
1,25
2,5
1,25
-1,25
-6,25
-2,5
1,25
5
2,5
5
-1,25
1,25
0
1,25
-1,25
-2,5
-3,75
-1,25
6
3,75
3,75
0
-1,25
0
1,25
0
-3,75
-1,25
0
7
2,5
6,25
-1,25
3,75
0
2,5
-1,25
-5
-2,5
0
8
6,25
6,25
0
2,5
0
1,25
2,5
-1,25
-2,5
-1,25
9
2,5
6,25
1,25
2,5
1,25
0
-1,25
-2,5
-3,75
2,5
Round
no.
Gr1
Gr2
Gr3
10
1,25
3,75
1,25
11
1,25
3,75
2,5
12
0
3,75
0
1,25
Number of participants (%)
Number of participants (%)
25%
Gr4
Gr5
Gr6
Gr7
Gr8
Gr9
Gr10
2,5
2,5
1,25
1,25
1,25
2,5
-3,75
-3,75
-1,25
0
-1,25
-2,5
0
1,25
-1,25
0
-2,5
-3,75
-2,5
0
20%
Appendix
3. The division of the frequency of choosing selfemployment depending on gender and entrepreneurship (1
15%
observation = 1 participant)
Part10%
1: Women
25%
5%
20%
0%
15%
10%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
5%
0%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
Part 2: Men
Number of participants (%)
Number of participants (%)
25%
20%
15%
10%
25%
5%
20%
0%
15%
10%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
5%
0%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
181
Number of participants ( (%)
25%
20%
15%
Number of participants ( (%)
Part 3: Entrepreneurs
10%
30%
5%
25%
0%
20%
15%
10%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
5%
0%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
Part 4: Non-entrepreneurs
Number of participants (%)
Number of participants (%)
30%
25%
20%
15%
10%
30%
5%
25%
0%
20%
15%
10%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
5%
0%
The frequency of choosing self-employment
182
The Polish Agency for Enterprise Development (PARP) is a government agency subject to the Minister of Economy. It was established under the act from
9th November, 2000. Its objective is to manage funds from the State treasury
and the European Union resources aimed at supporting entrepreneurship
and innovativeness, as well as human resources development.
In the 2007–2013 nancial perspective the Agency is responsible for implementing activities under three operational programs: Innovative Economy,
Human Capital and Eastern Poland Development.
One of the Agency’s priorities is to promote innovative attitudes and to encourage entrepreneurs to implement the latest technologies in their companies.
In order to achieve this PARP runs Innovation Portal devoted to the various
aspects of innovation (www.pi.gov.pl), as well as an annual competition - the
Polish Product of the Future. Representatives of SMEs can participate in regular meetings in the form of the Innovative Enterprises Club.
Both entrepreneurs and persons wiling to start business activity can acquire
knowledge and broaden their competences via PARP Academy Education
(www.akademiaparp.gov.pl) - e-learning portal oering training, coaching
and mentoring. With the web.gov.pl website, the PARP supports development of e-business. The Enterprise Europe Network operating under PARP
oers comprehensive information about the European Union law and the
rules of running business in the Common Market.
National Services System, established by the PARP, helps to start and develop
business activities. In over 150 NSS centres (including: Consultation Points,
the National Innovation Network, loan and guarantee funds, which cooperate under the NSS) all over Poland entrepreneurs and persons willing to start
business activity can acquire information, advice and trainings useful in running business - they can also obtain a loan or a guarantee. Moreover, the PARP
runs the NSS web portal: www.ksu.parp.gov.pl. and cooperates with Regional
Financing Institutions (RFI) which are PARP’s regional partners in implementing selected activities.
The Agency is also active in research areas, conducting surveys and analysis
in the following areas: entrepreneurship, innovation, human resource development and business support institutions. Each year there is a report on SME
sector prepared which provides detailed information on the development
of entrepreneurs in Poland. The outcome of the research constitutes the
basis for support instruments and other activities implemented by the PARP
(http://badania.parp.gov.pl).
Polish Agency for Enterprise Development
81/83 Panska Street 00-834 Warsaw
phone +48 22 432 80 80, fax: +48 22 432 86 20,
biuro@parp.gov.pl www.parp.gov.pl
PARP Information Point
phone + 48 22 432 89 91-93
0 801 332 202
info@parp.gov.pl
ISBN 978-83-7633-185-0